From soil carbon to climate action: Metrics that matter

Effectively confronting climate change requires quantitative, place-based metrics that provide measurable integrity for both global climate agreements and locally grounded actions. Soil carbon sequestration is a key mechanism for long-term carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, offering additional co-benefits that enhance climate resilience and readiness in both landscapes and communities. Over the past several decades, our understanding of the biological, physical, and chemical processes governing soil carbon storage, retention, and release in natural and agricultural systems has advanced significantly. Now, continued improvements in computational capacity and modeling tools allow us to link these soil processes to both direct (e.g., enhanced soil carbon stabilization through ecosystem restoration) and indirect (e.g., reduced reliance on imported fertilizers and diversion of organic waste through compost amendments) radiative forcing benefits. In Hawaiʻi, where working lands and biodiversity conservation are often seen in conflict, examples of good rangeland stewardship demonstrate how well-managed grazing can align with conservation practices. These stories of resilience, supported by soil carbon and health data, offer quantitative, science-based evidence for the role of agricultural landscapes in climate solutions. Documenting and elevating these examples can dispel assumptions, providing metrics that track progress in ways meaningful to both local communities and broader climate frameworks. To translate this knowledge into meaningful climate action, adaptive, holistic, and quantitative assessment frameworks are needed—frameworks that resonate with communities and decision makers alike, mobilizing collective action in the face of rapidly accelerating environmental change.