Alice Luneau

UMR LESSEM et PACTE

PhD student / Nov 2025 to Oct 2028

Protecting soils for climate mitigation? An investigation into territorial governance frameworks for carbon storage in agricultural soils

Long marginalised by surface‑level land‑tenure and socio‑political concerns, soils are now experiencing renewed visibility across disciplines, including the social sciences. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a significant shift by positioning soils as key carbon sinks within climate‑policy frameworks. Traditionally considered mainly for their agricultural fertility, soils are increasingly framed as a global subterranean carbon reservoir requiring evaluation, management, and protection. Yet the adoption of carbon‑enhancing practices by farmers remains shaped—and often limited—by existing economic incentives and legal structures.

This doctoral research aims to analyse, within the French context, the conditions for developing territorial governance arrangements that promote the preservation or restoration of agricultural‑soil quality based on their carbon‑sequestration potential, while critically examining the risks of policy framings that would reduce soils to a single climate‑mitigation function.

Eva Boisson-Dumont

LAPPS et CRJ

Postdoctoral researcher / Sept 2025 to Jan 2027

Levers and barriers to the adoption of carbon‑sequestration practices in agriculture

Agricultural carbon‑sequestration policies can make a substantial contribution to climate‑change mitigation (Evans et al., 2015, Lal, 2004). In France, the agricultural sector is central to the National Low‑Carbon Strategy adopted in 2015, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

In a policy context where the adoption of carbon‑sequestering agricultural practices relies on voluntary farmer participation, it is essential—both for current and future policy success—to understand the factors that motivate farmers to engage in carbon farming and to participate in such schemes (Kragt et al., 2017, Pannell & Claassen, 2020).

Our multidisciplinary research combines methodologies from psychology and geography to analyse the psychological, socio‑economic, and legal factors that either hinder or encourage the adoption of carbon‑sequestration and mitigation measures among French farmers.

To do so, a survey will be distributed to farmers across France, and semi‑structured interviews will be conducted in the Auvergne–Rhône‑Alpes region with other farmers and with stakeholders promoting the adoption of carbon‑sequestering agricultural practices (e.g., Chamber of Agriculture, Low‑Carbon Label intermediaries, etc.).

Mostafa Moradzadeh

UMR LG-ENS

Postdoctoral Researcher / Dec 2024 to Dec 2026

Improving the representation of grassland management in the ORCHIDEE land surface model

The project focuses on improving the representation of grassland management in ORCHIDEE, a land surface model used to simulate processes within the Earth system.