With the concurrent increases in both cover crop adoption and climate change awareness over the past several decades, there is a growing need to understand their interactions. The response to this need by the scientific community is evidenced by a flurry of analyses assessing how cover crops affect carbon (C) sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from soil. Yet, while research linking cover crops and climate change is expanding, the studies are still piecemeal. That is, most papers, even review papers, treat only one aspect (e.g., just soil C) of the cover crop-climate change interaction. The goals of this paper are to synthesize existing research to develop the first comprehensive review of cover crop impacts on climate change mitigation, and to use lessons learned from two contrasting regions to analyze additional benefits of cover crops for climate change adaptation.