Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01285-x
Rui Wang,Wenfeng He,Yumiao Xue,Yang Yu,Beibei Liu
Agricultural irrigation sustains food production and climate adaptation but intensifies energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Incorporating irrigation into the power grid's demand-side response presents a promising yet underexplored opportunity for achieving energy and carbon co-benefits during the global energy transition. We develop the Irrigation Scheduling Optimization Model within the grain-water-energy-carbon nexus to align irrigation schedules with renewable-energy intermittency. Using China as a case study, we demonstrate that fine-tuning irrigation schedules reduces emissions by 11.1%-25.8% under current low-renewable penetrated grids and by 16.5%-56.9% as renewables penetration increases, by using up to 92.3% of otherwise curtailed renewable power. A combined strategy of energy transition, irrigation optimization and diesel-to-electricity electrification could achieve ~42.1 MtCO2e (92.2%) of greenhouse gas savings by the 2050s, approaching net zero emissions. Efficacy peaks when local renewable shares reach 65%-70%, highlighting crucial spatiotemporal windows. Our study positions agricultural irrigation as a nature-integrated form of virtual energy storage, offering a pathway to enhance grid resilience and support low-carbon climate adaptation.
{"title":"Optimizing agricultural irrigation as virtual energy storage to match renewable power profiles unlocks climate benefits during the energy transition.","authors":"Rui Wang,Wenfeng He,Yumiao Xue,Yang Yu,Beibei Liu","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01285-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01285-x","url":null,"abstract":"Agricultural irrigation sustains food production and climate adaptation but intensifies energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Incorporating irrigation into the power grid's demand-side response presents a promising yet underexplored opportunity for achieving energy and carbon co-benefits during the global energy transition. We develop the Irrigation Scheduling Optimization Model within the grain-water-energy-carbon nexus to align irrigation schedules with renewable-energy intermittency. Using China as a case study, we demonstrate that fine-tuning irrigation schedules reduces emissions by 11.1%-25.8% under current low-renewable penetrated grids and by 16.5%-56.9% as renewables penetration increases, by using up to 92.3% of otherwise curtailed renewable power. A combined strategy of energy transition, irrigation optimization and diesel-to-electricity electrification could achieve ~42.1 MtCO2e (92.2%) of greenhouse gas savings by the 2050s, approaching net zero emissions. Efficacy peaks when local renewable shares reach 65%-70%, highlighting crucial spatiotemporal windows. Our study positions agricultural irrigation as a nature-integrated form of virtual energy storage, offering a pathway to enhance grid resilience and support low-carbon climate adaptation.","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145986227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01291-z
Rob Vos,Will Martin
{"title":"Green innovations are the best policy option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood systems.","authors":"Rob Vos,Will Martin","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01291-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01291-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145971762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01289-7
Laura Lara-Castor,Dariush Mozaffarian,Jessica Jones-Smith,Simon Barquera
{"title":"The growing public health problem of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and promising strategies to reduce its burden.","authors":"Laura Lara-Castor,Dariush Mozaffarian,Jessica Jones-Smith,Simon Barquera","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01289-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01289-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"146 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145955958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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