Agriculture

GMA Agriculture focuses on accelerating the adoption of low-emissions fertilizer. Nitrogenous fertilizer production represents 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as one of the most addressable sources of agricultural emissions in the near-term.

More broadly, the agri-food system drives roughly one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving net zero will require changes to farming practices, dietary shifts, waste reduction, and a range of additional actions. Most of these interventions require behavioral change across millions of farms and an even larger set of consumers, resulting in implementation timelines that will play out over decades rather than years. While urgent action is needed across all fronts, decarbonizing fertilizer production offers a near-term opportunity to drive measurable emissions reductions that can keep food & beverage brands on track to meet near-term Scope 3 targets.

Nitrogen fertilizers generate an estimated 1.3 gigatons of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually, with 40% originating from production itself. These production emissions occur at a limited number of ammonia and fertilizer manufacturing facilities, enabling targeted interventions to dramatically reduce emissions at a system-level.

Despite ambitious Scope 3 commitments from downstream food & beverage companies, long and complex value chains prevent food brands from engaging directly with fertilizer producers to lower emissions. Instead, they must coordinate a network of aggregators, farmers, and input providers to drive change indirectly, weakening the incentives for producers to decarbonize their operations. To make the large capital investments required to decarbonize fertilizer production, producers will need clearer signals that they can capture value from lower-emissions production.

GMA Agriculture, in partnership with RMI, is applying proven book and claim models to bridge this value chain gap—enabling direct transactions between corporate buyers and fertilizer producers that support low-emission production and deliver verified emissions reductions, without requiring complex coordination or disrupting farmers’ operations.

As part of preparations for a pilot procurement, GMA and RMI have released an RFI for low-emission fertilizer. Learn more and download the RFI here. The deadline for responses is Friday, March 20, 2026.