Including Greenhouse Gas Emissions Research Articles

The effects of extractive industries rent on deforestation in developing countries

The extractive industries (oil, gas, and mining) play a dominant economic, social, and political role in the lives of approximately 3.5 billion people living in 81 countries across the world. However, the benefits of extractive industries come at a cost that is no longer limited to the “natural resource curse” but also includes greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and biodiversity losses. This paper revisits the links between man-made and natural capital in developing countries, focusing on forest cover loss1. Considering a theoretical model of income maximization, we assess through empirical observation the impact of extractive industries on forest cover loss. Based on a panel of 52 resource-rich developing countries over the period 2001–2017, we adopt a dynamic specification with the two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) system to address the inherent bias. Our main results show a detrimental effect of the total rent from the extractive industries on the forest cover but suggest non-homogenous impacts according to the type of rent. More specifically, mineral and gas rents contribute to accelerating forest cover loss. In contrast, oil rents and resource tax revenues contribute to reducing forest cover loss. Our results can be interpreted as in a “polluter pays” situation, where a fair share of the profits is earmarked obligatorily to compensate for the environmental damage caused by the exploitation of extractive industries. To promote corporate environmental management, stakeholders must overcome regulatory inefficiencies in exploration and exploitation contracts so that environmental compensation is at least equal to the marginal damage caused by the extractive industries.

Book Review: AICPA Guide: Attestation Engagements on Sustainability Information (Including Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information)

Book Review: AICPA Guide: Attestation Engagements on Sustainability Information (Including Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information)

When Biomass Electricity Demand Prompts Thinnings in Southern US Pine Plantations: A Forest Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case Study

Increasing demand for woody biomass-derived electricity in the UK and elsewhere has resulted in a rapidly expanding wood pellet manufacturing industry in the southern US. Since this demand is driven by climate concerns and an objective to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electricity sector, it is crucial to understand the full carbon consequences of wood pellet sourcing, processing, and utilization. We performed a comparative carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) for pellets sourced from three mills in the southern US destined for electricity generation in the UK. The baseline assumptions included GHG emissions of the UK’s 2018 and 2025 target electricity grid mix and feedstock supplied primarily from non-industrial private forest (NIPF) pine plantations augmented with a fraction of sawmill residues. Based on regional expert input, we concluded that forest management practices on the NIPF pine plantations would include timely thinning harvest treatments in the presence of pellet demand. The LCA analysis included landscape carbon stock changes based on USDA Forest Service Forest Vegetation Simulator using current USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data as the starting condition of supply areas in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We found that GHG emission parity (i.e., the time when accumulated carbon GHG emissions for the bioenergy scenario equal the baseline scenario) is more than 40 years for pellets produced at each individual pellet mill and for all three pellet mills combined when compared to either the UK’s 2018 electricity grid mix or the UK’s targeted electricity grid mix in 2025. The urgency to mitigate climate change with near-term actions as well as increasing uncertainty with longer-term simulations dictated a focus on the next four decades in the analysis. Even at 50% sawmill residues, GHG emission parity was not reached during the 40 years modeled. Results are most likely conservative since we assume a high share of sawmill residues (ranging from 20 to 50%) and did not include limited hardwood feedstocks as reported in the supply chain which are generally associated with delayed GHG emission parity because of lower growth rates.

The impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the performance of water companies: a dynamic assessment.

The water industry plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore, moving to a low-carbon urban water cycle is of great importance. However, traditional performance assessment of water companies ignores GHG emissions. To overcome this limitation and to compare productivity change estimations of water companies excluding and including GHG emissions, this study computes the Luenberger productivity indicator (LPI) and the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index (MLPI), respectively. Moreover, in a second stage, we investigate the impact of exogenous variables on environmentally sensitive productivity change estimations. The empirical application conducted for a sample of water and sewerage companies in England and Wales over the period 201-2019 has illustrated that when GHG emissions were considered in the assessment (i.e., MLPI estimations), average productivity decreased. By contrast, when productivity estimation ignored GHG emissions (i.e., LPI), average productivity increased. Hence, it is concluded that the inclusion of GHG emissions in productivity analysis impacted the results. This finding is very relevant from a policy perspective as it illustrates the importance of considering GHG emissions when evaluating the performance of water companies for regulatory purposes.

A geo‐spatial approach to assess Trees outside Forest (ToF) in Haryana State, India

AbstractMapping and monitoring the Trees outside Forest (ToF) is gaining significance in the scientific community as they provide critical ecosystem services such as protecting soil and water resources, wildlife habitat, and aesthetics including food, fuel, and fibre. Quantifying ToF can also provide useful information for emission estimation relating to the agriculture, forests, and other land use (AFOLU) category of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Despite the importance of quantifying ToF, very few studies have attempted to quantify them in India's natural resource inventory programs. In this study, we focused on Haryana State, India, to inventory ToF using very high‐resolution (VHR) Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite data. Haryana's landscape is interspersed with croplands and ToF, thus providing a challenging environment to test VHR satellite data's ability to quantify the diversified landscape structure. We specifically used CARTOSAT‐1 panchromatic (2.5 m) and multispectral LISS‐IV (5.8 m) datasets to quantify the vegetation and build a much‐needed database for ToF. We used a novel classification scheme based on the geometry, that is, point, line, or polygon formations, to quantify ToF at a scale of 1:10,000. The obtained results suggest ToF with linear and block formations extended to 128.83 and 20.51 km2, respectively, accounting for ~3.38% of the Total Georgraphical Area of Haryana State while point formations established 2,774,531 in numbers. This study highlights the usefulness of VHR satellite data and fused imagery to quantify ToF in highly diverse landscape of Haryana. The results will help address vital ecosystem services from ToF, including greenhouse gas emissions quantification from the Agriculture, Forests and Other LandUse (AFOLU) category.

Region-specific nutritious, environmentally friendly, and affordable diets in India

Region-specific nutritious, environmentally friendly, and affordable diets in India

Conservative to disruptive diets for optimizing nutrition, environmental impacts and cost in French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Improving the sustainability of diets requires the identification of diets that meet the nutritional requirements of populations, promote health, are within planetary boundaries, are affordable and are acceptable. Here we explore the extent to which dimensions of sustainability could be optimally aligned and identify more sustainable dietary solutions, from the most conservative to the most disruptive, among 12,166 participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort. We aim to concomitantly lower environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand and land occupation), increase organic food consumption and study departure from observed diets (considered as a proxy for acceptability). From the most conservative to the most disruptive scenario, optimized diets were gradually richer in fruits, vegetables and soya-based products and markedly poorer in animal-based foods and fatty and sweet foods. The contribution of animal protein to total protein intake gradually decreased by 12% to 70% of the observed value. The greenhouse gas emissions from food production for the diets gradually decreased across scenarios (as a percentage of observed values) by 36-86%, land occupation for food production by 32-78% and energy demand by 28-72%. Our results offer a benchmark of scenarios of graded dietary changes against graded sustainability improvements.

Hotter and sicker: External energy expenditure and the tangled evolutionary roots of anthropogenic climate change and chronic disease.

The dual crises of climate change and chronic, or non-communicable, disease (NCD) have emerged worldwide as the global economy has industrialized over the past two centuries. In this synthesis I examine humans' dependence on external (non-metabolic) energy expenditure (e.g., fire, fossil fuels) as a common, root cause in these modern crises. Using fossil, archeological, and historical evidence I show that the human lineage has been dependent on external energy sources since the control of fire in the Paleolithic. This reliance has grown with the development of agriculture, the use of wind- and water-power, and the most recently with industrialization and the transition to fossil fuels. To place industrialization in context I develop a Rule of 50, whereby individuals in industrialized economies consume roughly 50-times more external energy and manufacture roughly 50-times more material than do hunter-gatherers. Industrialization and mechanization, powered by fossil fuels, have promoted centralization and processing in food production, reduced physical activity, and increased air pollution (including greenhouse gas emissions). These developments have led in turn to NCD and climate change. Climate change and NCD are connected both to one another and to our species' deep evolutionary dependence on external energy. Transitioning to carbon-free energy is essential to reduce the existential risks of climate change, but will likely have only modest effects on NCD. With the impending exhaustion of oil, coal, and natural gas reserves, developing replacements for fossil fuels is also critical to maintaining our species' external energy portfolio.

Assessment of Factors Affecting the Amount of Food Waste in Households Run by Polish Women Aware of Well-Being

Food waste is a pressing problem in Western countries. Increased food waste production directly affects environmental changes and pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions and contamination with packaging. In Poland, 9.2 million tons of food is lost annually, 53% of which is produced by consumers. To minimize food waste by consumers, it is necessary to understand the factors affecting the behaviors associated with food wasting. This work is focused on investigating the causes and behaviors related to food wasting, and determining the kinds of food that are wasted in Polish households run by women that possess a high awareness of well-being. It was found that most of the respondents who took part in the survey admitted that their households did waste food. It was shown that there is a positive correlation between the number of people living in a household and the amount of food wasted. It was also confirmed that age has an impact on the amount of food discarded by Polish women, because respondents over 37 years of age wasted less food and more often declared a lack of wasting compared to others. In households, fresh food with short expiry dates, including vegetables, fruit, bread, and meat, was wasted the most. The most important factors directly influencing the amount of wasted food were: purchasing too much food, a lack of expiry-date control, a lack of planning of purchases and menus, and a lack of ideas for using food residues. The main element affecting waste is purchasing too much food, most often resulting from susceptibility to promotions, willingness to buy in stock, and a lack of prior planning. Understanding the mechanisms of waste allows households to take actions to effectively reduce it, and therefore ensure greater food security in the world.

ENABLING CROP DIVERSIFICATION TO SUPPORT TRANSITIONS TOWARD MORE SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

European cropping systems are often characterized by short rotations or even monocropping, leading to environmental issues such as soil degradation, water eutrophication, and air pollution including greenhouse gas emissions, that contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss. The use of diversification practices (i.e., intercropping, multiple cropping including cover cropping and rotation extension), may help enhance agrobiodiversity and deliver ecosystem services while developing new value chains. Despite its benefits, crop diversification is hindered by various technical, organizational, and institutional barriers along value chains (input industries, farms, trading and processing industries, retailers, and consumers) and within sociotechnical systems (policy, research, education, regulation and advisory). Six EU-funded research projects have joined forces to boost crop diversification by creating the European Crop Diversification Cluster (CDC). This Cluster aggregates research, innovation, commercial and citizen-focused partnerships to identify and remove barriers across the agrifood system and thus enables the uptake of diversification measures by all European value-chain stakeholders. The CDC will produce a typology of barriers, develop tools to accompany actors in their transition, harmonize the use of multicriteria assessment indicators, prepare policy recommendations and pave the way for a long-term network on crop diversification.

Concepts and type building for carbon neutral construction in arctic Finland based on tradition

This paper discusses traditional solutions for carbon neutral construction in arctic conditions. We consider that vernacular architecture forms an important source of knowledge to resource-wise, energy-efficient and sustainable ways to organize human dwellings and settlements. The key tasks of our research were to (1) identify the factors of traditional arctic construction that have an impact to sustainability and carbon-neutrality of arctic building and to (2) develop and assess a type building for arctic districts (Finland), based on traditional solutions, that fulfills the functional prerequisites for modern living comfort and energy requirements. The study is based on literature, fieldwork and Life Cycle Assessment calculations for the theoretical case. The life cycle assessment includes greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage in timber and bio-based materials. Energy usage follows the principles of carbon neutrality. Wooden products used in the construction store biogenic carbon from the product stage to the building demolition stage. The case study calculations showed that operational energy demand could be fulfilled with the use of solar PV, solar collectors, ground source energy and district-scale wind energy supply. Results show that the biogenic carbon content is more than enough to offset the emissions from building materials and renewable energy technologies needed for operating the building. The research was funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The potential effectiveness of four different options to reduce environmental impacts of grazed pastures. A model-based assessment

Pastoral agriculture can have negative environmental impacts. These include greenhouse gas emissions (such as enteric CH4 and soil N2O emissions), NH3 volatilisation, and leaching of nitrogen into waterways. We used a modelling approach to assess the effect of three plant traits and one management practice on N2O emissions, nitrogen (N) losses via leaching and NH3 volatilisation, pasture production and soil organic carbon (SOC) changes (as applicable). The aim was to identify traits/management practices that could potentially be environmentally beneficial and could then inform future research to find or breed plants with those traits.The traits and practice investigated were: 1) N content in animal feed; 2) plant-excreted nitrification inhibitors; 3) deep rooting; and 4) frequency of pasture renewal. Of these, the N content in animal feed provided the most promising results, with low N content resulting in lower urine N excretion, and consequently reduced leaching losses and emissions of N2O and NH3. Modelling the effect of plant-excreted nitrification inhibitors showed mixed results, with reduced leaching rates but increased NH3 emissions. N2O emissions could be reduced if nitrification rates were strongly reduced. However, at lower rates of inhibition, there was little effect on N2O emissions. In the deep rooting scenarios, we found that N leaching losses were minimised if roots grew predominantly in upper soil layers where any mineral N was likely to spend more time before being leached. Nitrogen was, therefore, more effectively intercepted and prevented from leaching by greater root proliferation in the upper rather than deeper layers. For pasture renewal, we unexpectedly found that SOC could be increased by more frequent pasture renewal. However, this would come at the cost of reduced pasture production as renewal events reduced grazing off-takes proportionately more than the reduction in carbon gain by pasture plants. A renewal period of about 10 years was found to be optimal for pasture production and could be maintained with minimal SOC changes.

High-Resolution Surface Water Classifications of the Xingu River, Brazil, Pre and Post Operationalization of the Belo Monte Hydropower Complex

We describe a new high spatial resolution surface water classification dataset generated for the Xingu river, Brazil, from its confluence with the Iriri river to the Pimental dam prior to construction of the Belo Monte hydropower complex, and after its operationalization. This river is well-known for its exceptionally high diversity and endemism in ichthyofauna. Pre-existing datasets generated from moderate resolution satellite imagery (e.g., 30 m) do not adequately capture the extent of the river. Accurate measurements of water extent are important for a range of applications utilizing surface water data, including greenhouse gas emission estimation, land cover change mapping, and habitat loss/change estimates, among others. We generated the new classifications from RapidEye imagery (5 m pixel size) for 2011 and PlanteScope imagery (3 m pixel size) for 2019 using a Geographic Object Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) approach.

Research on Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Dairy Farming: A Systematic Mapping of Current Literature

Dairy cows are able to convert fibrous materials, such as grass, roughage, and by-products from the food industry, into milk and meat, which justifies their role in food production. However, modern dairy farming is associated with major sustainability challenges, including greenhouse gas emissions. In order to develop sustainable future production, it is important to implement existing knowledge and fill knowledge gaps. The aim of this study was to systematically map the scientific literature on environmental, economic, and social sustainability at farm level in dairy farming. Literature published between January 2000 and March 2020 and with the geographical focus on Europe, North America, and Australia–New Zealand was included. In total, the literature search resulted in 169 hits, but after removing duplicates and papers outside the study scope only 35 papers remained. Of these, only 11 dealt with the three dimensions of sustainability, and several of these only mentioned one or two of the dimensions or set them in relation to that/those actually studied. Overall, the selected literature did not clearly explain how aspects of sustainability are interlinked, so possible negative or positive interactions between different aspects of sustainability dimensions remain unidentified.

One-pot synthesis of digestate-derived biochar for carbon dioxide capture

Digestate from Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a very common waste produced by European biogas plants and its current method of reuse is as a fertilizer or as soil amendment. This in turn however gives rise to some other environmental concerns which include greenhouse gas emissions and volatilization of ammonia causing ammonia pollution. Biochar is an environmentally friendly and low-cost product for CO2 capture and sequestration. Thus, we have provided one simple method to convert AD digestate into biochar-based sorbents of CO2. In addition, the nitrogen-functionalised porous carbon has been reported to be effective in improving the uptake of CO2. However, most of them were prepared using multiple steps. In this work, N-doped biochar was prepared by a one-step method of modifying AD digestate by urea. The results show that the addition of N can increase CO2 uptake significantly. Thus, the adsorbent modified by urea with a ratio of 1:1 results in the highest CO2 uptake capacity (1.22 mmol g−1), indicating digestate’s potential application for carbon capture and storage.

The world’s growing municipal solid waste: trends and impacts

Global municipal waste production causes multiple environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, ocean plastic accumulation, and nitrogen pollution. However, estimates of both past and future development of waste and pollution are scarce. We apply compositional Bayesian regression to produce the first estimates of past and future (1965–2100) waste generation disaggregated by composition and treatment, along with resultant environmental impacts, for every country. We find that total wastes grow at declining speed with economic development, and that global waste generation has increased from 635 Mt in 1965 to 1999 Mt in 2015 and reaches 3539 Mt by 2050 (median values, middle-of-the-road scenario). From 2015 to 2050, the global share of organic waste declines from 47% to 39%, while all other waste type shares increase, especially paper. The share of waste treated in dumps declines from 28% to 18%, and more sustainable recycling, composting, and energy recovery treatments increase. Despite these increases, we estimate environmental loads to continue increasing in the future, although yearly plastic waste input into the oceans has reached a peak. Waste production does not appear to follow the environmental Kuznets curve, and current projections do not meet UN SDGs for waste reduction. Our study shows that a continuation of current trends and improvements is insufficient to reduce pressures on natural systems and achieve a circular economy. Relative to 2015, the amount of recycled waste would need to increase from 363 Mt to 740 Mt by 2030 to begin reducing unsustainable waste generation, compared to 519 Mt currently projected.

Assessing the required life-cycle characteristics of electricity storage for ensuring sustainability in buildings

In high-performance buildings, energy storage is a key component in increasing self-consumption of onsite renewable energy, but is also responsible for extra embedded burdens. The main risk is not paying back these extra burdens through operational benefits during the use phase of the building. The aim of this study is to define, explore and propose a methodology for assessing the limits of the viability of energy storage systems when embedded in a building, utilising a set of indicators including greenhouse gas emissions, primary energy and costs. These values are therefore of importance when designing a building energy system integrating renewable energy source and energy storage. Beyond the results obtained for a case study in Switzerland, the study unveils different mechanisms according to the scheme of renewable energy exports. Results are greatly affected by the geographic context and demonstrate the necessity to implement harvesting systems providing low-impact renewable energy in buildings.

Organic Electrochemical, PEDOT:PSS-Based Impedimetric Histamine Sensor

Introduction With human world population expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, the USDA predicts the need to double the world food production [1]. Much of this growth will be concentrated in the developing world. The rising standards of living are associated with increased consumption of animal products, including meat and dairy, the growth of which is projected to exceed growth in the global population. As animal agriculture is associated with great environmental costs, including greenhouse gas emissions and high water usage, there is tremendous opportunity for positive impacts on global health and sustainability. Monitoring the chemical content inside the cow rumen (stomach) can aid in early disease detection for a safer food supply, effect remediation of methane emissions through nutritional supplements to reduce greenhouse gases, and tailor feeding to the individual cow metabolism for efficiency.Our group is currently involved in developing a suite of technologies to achieve these lofty goals. One of the components is a robotic agent, termed RUMENS (Rumen Understanding through Millipede-Engineered Navigation and Sensing), an active sensing platform hosting an array of commercial and purpose-built sensors [2]. Histamine is a chemical, of which high concentrations are associated with subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA), a common disease in high-producing lactating cows [3]. Early detection of high levels of histamine could result in more efficient animal farming and the development of the described customizable sensor substrate may pave the way for a variety of future biological sensors. Method Clevios P VP CH 8000 formulation of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) was purchased from Heraeus. Ethylene glycol, glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane, isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and acetone were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. All chemicals were used as received without any purification. PEDOT:PSS solution was prepared from 95 Vt.% PEDOT:PSS, 4 Vt.% ethylene glycol and 1 Vt.% glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane [4]. The glass substrates were washed 3 times with DI water, IPA and acetone, respectively. Planar electrodes, with dimensions of 1 mm (W) and 10 mm (L), were obtained from Cr and Au evaporated on cleaned substrate, with the thicknesses of 3 nm and 30 nm, respectively. Then, a plasma processing was carried out using Harrick's Plasma Cleaner PDC-32G in high mode for 10 mins to activate the substrate surface and aid in PEDOT:PSS adhesion and cross linking. The PEDOT:PSS film was deposited by a spin coating method at a rate of 2000 rpm for 60 s. After manually patterning PEDOT:PSS between two adjacent devices using IPA, the final product was annealed at 140 °C for 70 min.An impedance measurement, using RLC meter (NF ZM 2372), was used to test the resistance with different histamine concentrations. The sample concentrations were prepared by dissolving a known amount of histamine in phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH of 5.5 and 7.4). A 3 μL droplet of PBS electrolyte was dropped onto the PEDOT:PSS layer, directly between two planar electrodes (inset of Figure 1). Devices were washed in DI water between measurements. Results and Conclusions Figure 1 shows the relationship between channel resistance and concentration of histamine in PBS in our PEDOT:PSS-based sensor. It can be seen that the magnitude of impedance is increasing with the increased histamine concentration. The figure indicates minimum, maximum, and mean values calculated on five separate measurements, with very little difference between the extremes (<1%). A sharp increase of resistance between 0.56 and 1.11 µg/mL is likely an artifact of the measurement. Since the molecular size of histamine is much larger than the ions in the PBS, with the increased histamine concentration, more histamine will penetrate into the PEDOT:PSS layer, which blocks the internal charge transport. Therefore, the conductivity of the whole device decreases (or its resistivity increases) with the increased histamine concentration. The results shown correspond to PBS with pH of 7.4, corresponding to an upper limit of histamine inside cow rumen, with pH of 5.5 (lower limit) demonstrating a similar trend. This, we believe, indicates the device as suitable for histamine detection.

Greenhouse gas emissions and surface water management

Abstract. Soil subsidence is one of the major issues in the management area of the water authority Amstel, Gooi and Vecht, including emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper describes four different methods to calculate these emissions in agricultural peat meadows, based on (1) the mean lowest groundwater level, (2) the mean groundwater level, (3) the subsidence rates and (4) general numbers. The emissions were calculated in two polders (about 2600 ha peat meadow), these were comparable for all methods, ranging from 42 up to 50 kton CO2-eq yr−1 (based on data of 2015), which is about 14.5 up to 19 t CO2-eq ha−1 yr−1. Besides, the greenhouse gas emissions were compared for different policy scenario's in one polder subunit (283 ha): (1) standard policy (lowering surface water level at the same rate as soil subsidence taking place), (2) passive rewetting (surface water level fixation), (3) subsurface irrigation by submerged drains, and (4) a maximum surface water level decrease of 6 mm yr−1. Comparing the four policy scenario's in one polder subunit, greenhouse gas emissions were lowest in case of subsurface irrigation, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by about 35 %–50 % in this polder compared to standard policy, meaning a decrease of about 5.5–9.3 t CO2-eq ha−1 yr−1. This represents a value of about 550–930 EUR ha−1 yr−1 (at a price of EUR 100 per ton CO2-eq). The scenario passive rewetting leads to a decrease of about 12 %–21 %, or 2–3 t CO2-eq ha−1 yr−1 compared to standard policy. The estimation of the decrease in GHG emissions depends on the assumptions made. In this study it was assumed that subsurface irrigation halves soil subsidence. The water board will use the described procedures to estimate greenhouse gas emissions in the future to support water level management in areas with peat soils.

Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa.

Dairy development provides substantial potential economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by the scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Ruminant livestock production is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, land-use change, and loss of biodiversity. Improved livestock feeding and forages have been highlighted as key entry point to sustainable intensification, increasing food security, and decreasing environmental trade-offs including GHG emission intensities. In this perspective article, we argue that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. First, we outline the unique position of forages in crop-livestock systems and systemic obstacles to adoption that call for multidisciplinary thinking. Second, we discuss the importance of matching forage technologies with agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and niches, and systems agronomy that is required. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of farming systems modeling to estimate multidimensional impacts of forages and for reducing agro-environmental trade-offs. We conclude that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward sustainable livestock systems in East Africa.