A leader in the field of carbon calculation has hailed DEFRA’s long-awaited Harmonisation report as an “important catalyst” to improve consistency when it comes to tackling agriculture’s carbon footprint.
Farmers first complaint when it comes to taking part in carbon accounting is often the lack of industry-wide standardisation; something which the DEFRA report Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture not only acknowledged but came up with firm recommendations to try and balance the emission books more consistently.
Julian Bell, Agrecalc Agriculture Director and Principal Consultant, is presenting at the Low Carbon Agriculture Show, which takes place on March 6th and 7th at the National Agricultural Exhibition Centre at Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire.
“The timing of this report from DEFRA couldn’t have been better from the point of view of familiarising ourselves with the most up-to-date recommendations in time for the Low Carbon Agricultural Show,” explained Mr Bell.
“We welcome this report because it presents a real opportunity for Agrecalc and other calculators to progress towards increased consistency and standardisation in our approaches and methodologies.”
“We are dedicated to providing farmers and the broader industry with the most robust and widely accepted scientific methods to confidently identify their emissions and pinpoint areas for reduction. Our commitment to this pursuit is ongoing and continually evolving and fostering confidence among the farming community is vital if we are to help the industry achieve its carbon reduction goals.”
Key recommendations to come out of the DEFRA Harmonisation report include:
- Defining what a farm-level assessment is
- Aligning calculators with the requirements of the latest standards and guidelines
- Regular reviews and updating of calculators to take into account changes in scientific knowledge
- Calculators to use emission factors from agreed set databases for emissions in fertilisers, feeds and fuels
- Calculator providers to build user confidence through transparency of approach, third-party verification and alignment of calculators to minimum standards.
The Agrecalc team can be found at stand 216 at the free entry Low Carbon Agriculture Show. They will be demonstrating the newest edition of the company’s Agrecalc Cloud calculation platform, which has already adopted standardised databases for emission values, in alignment with the specifications outlined in the report. Coupled with planned developments in the coming months, this evidences a significant advancement from Agrecalc version 1, as scrutinised in the DEFRA report, and positions the calculator closer to the harmonised approach advocated in the report.
The team will also be delivering a presentation on Understanding the current levels and sources of emissions during the Carbon Farming Session on Tuesday, March 6, at 3 PM. For further information visit https://www.lowcarbonagricultureshow.co.uk/