Black soil, considered the world’s most fertile for crops, once faced serious degradation in China – which hosts one of the world’s three largest black earth regions. During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) period, over 400 million mu (26.67 million hectares) of black soil in China was restored, through no-till farming, straw return, and protective cultivation. Through these practices, the country has turned its farmland green and secured the future of its food supply.

China’s Black Soil Region is one of the world’s three largest black earth regions, primarily concentrated in the northeast plain. The unique climatic and hydrological conditions, coupled with the region’s vegetation, form the foundation for human accumulation, resulting in a deep and fertile layer of black soil. China’s Black Soil Region encompasses Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia, where this expansive area covers 1.244 million square kilometers

Despite their relatively modest share in the global soil composition, black soils play a pivotal role, not just in supporting local communities but also in contributing to agricultural exports that nourish the global population. Remarkable yields are attributed to black soils, as evidenced by statistics indicating that over 50% of the global production of sunflower and small millet, 30% of wheat, 26% of soybean, and 16% of maize originate from black soils.

Recent research by University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has detailed the economic and ecological importance of conserving and managing these black soils.

The research points out that China’s black soils are renowned for their natural fertility, hold pivotal significance in global food production and play a crucial role in mitigating and adapting to climate change due to their excellent capacity for organic carbon sequestration.

However, black soils worldwide are subject to moderate to severe erosion due to the land use change, overuse of agrochemicals and high-intensity ploughing. Nearly 50% of organic carbon sequestration has been lost, resulting in nutrient imbalances, acidification, and biodiversity loss in black soil areas, severely compromising the capacity of food production and environmental sustainability.

China has ambitiously taken strides in the conservation and utilization of black soils, enacting its first law to protect black these invaluable resources, which have been promising. The research by the Chinese Academy of Sciences aimed to clarify the effect of China’s black soil conservation policies and projects on national grain supply security and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The research measures the contributions of grain production and GHG emissions in the black soil region in northeast China. Further, it analyzes the spatial and temporal characteristics of counties in advantage of grain production and GHG emissions from grain cultivation.

Through econometric analysis, this research evaluates the effectiveness of the pilot implementation of black soil conservation policies. Furthermore, it investigates the impacts of a comprehensive promotion of these policies, including optimization of grain structures, conservation tillage, organic soil cover, and nutrient management, on the future stabilization of national grain supply and the reduction of agricultural GHG emissions. The study results provide valuable information for Chinese agriculture as well as for global collaboration on black soil conservation and enhancement of agricultural land system management.

Sources:

CGTN, Nov 12, 2025. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195925524000696

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Volume 106, May 2024. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195925524000696

November 4, 2025.

China is actively expanding green trade which will help in achieving the “dual-carbon” goals, and better serve global climate efforts.

At a press briefing by China’s State Council Information Office on October 31, 2025 several Chinese officials spoke on green trade, including what policies had been taken and what would be the targets in the future.

Li Chenggang, International Trade Negotiator and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced the background and main content of the Opinions on the Implementation of Expanding Green Trade issued recently by the Chinese government.

Li Chenggang said the Opinion included four major aspects:

• In terms of enhancing the green and low-carbon development capabilities of China’s enterprises related to foreign trade business, it is proposed to strengthen training for enterprises and enhance enterprises’ awareness of green and low-carbon development; guide leading enterprises to drive the acceleration of green and low-carbon transformation in foreign trade production and supply chains; promote green design and production to reduce carbon emissions of foreign trade products; encourage the shift from “road to railway” and “road to waterway” in long-distance transportation, use environmentally friendly packaging, advance the international mutual recognition and sharing of unitized container equipment, and promote the green and low-carbon development of logistics; build green trade public service platforms and improve the capabilities of third-party green and low-carbon services.
  
• In terms of expanding the import and export of green and low-carbon related products and technologies, it is proposed to develop trade in sustainable fuels such as green hydrogen; explore the development of import and export of remanufactured products; support enterprises in utilizing preferential arrangements under free trade agreements to expand trade cooperation in the green and low-carbon field and create new highlights in foreign economic and trade cooperation; improve the greening level of exhibitions; study and improve import standards and management measures for renewable resources; deepen cooperation with countries under the Belt and Road Initiative and others in the green and low-carbon field, promote the green and low-carbon development of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, and strengthen policy support and services for foreign-funded enterprises.
  
• In terms of creating a favorable international environment for the development of green trade, it is proposed to participate in global consultations and discussions on carbon-related economic and trade rules, strengthen exchanges on green and low-carbon development issues, and promote the establishment of more inclusive and fair international green trade rules; actively participate in negotiations on green issues in high-standard economic and trade agreements, and improve the level of environmental chapters in free trade agreements; formulate and issue a number of carbon footprint accounting standards for key foreign trade products, and strengthen multilateral and bilateral mutual recognition cooperation in conformity assessment in the field of green and low-carbon development.
  
• In terms of establishing and improving the supporting and guarantee system for green trade, it is proposed to strengthen financial policy support, enrich financial products and services based on the results of carbon footprint accounting of foreign trade products, and increase the underwriting efforts of export credit insurance for green and low-carbon industries; accelerate the construction of a carbon footprint database for foreign trade products; improve and perfect the carbon pricing mechanism, expand the scale of green certificate and green electricity transactions to further meet the needs of foreign trade enterprises; strengthen the building of talent teams; establish a statistical monitoring and analysis system for green trade, and improve the policy and institutional system for green trade.

Li Chenggang also talked about how China participated global green governance to create a favorable international environment for the development of green trade.

This is an extract from Ying Xue’s China Ecological Civilization on Substack.

Source: China Ecological Civilization, Nov 02, 2025. https://xueyingyingxue.substack.com/…/chinese-officials…