Agricultural companies can better measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions with Agricultural Guidance from the World Resources Institute.
This sector is responsible for 17 percent of global GHG emissions but 75 percent of agricultural producers targeted by CDP do not report their emissions, WRI says.
Unlike industrial sectors, agricultural emissions are strongly influenced by environmental conditions, such as soil moisture content and temperature. For this reason, it has been difficult to separate man-made effects from natural ones and to obtain accurate emissions data. There have also been large uncertainties when calculating changes in carbon emissions due to land use and land-use change, which made agricultural activities even harder to measure.
Developed by the GHG Protocol, the Agricultural Guidance is the first globally harmonized framework for businesses, providing them with a comprehensive view of their agricultural emissions, WRI says. Because reducing emissions can help increase farm productivity and reduce the costs of farm inputs, the guidance offers a way to contribute to more sustainable economic growth.
The guidance has been road tested by leading agribusinesses in Brazil including Bunge, the largest Brazilian agribusiness exporter; AMAGGI, one of the world’s largest soy and corn producers; JBS, the world’s largest animal protein processing company; and Marfrig, one of the world’s top meat producers and beef processors.
In addition to the Agricultural Guidance, the GHG Protocol is launching an emissions calculation tool specifically for Brazilian companies. Brazil is the world’s fifth largest GHG emitter, largely due to emissions from agriculture (35 percent) and land use change in the Amazon and Cerrado (22 percent).
Organic farming practices could sequester more than 100 percent of our current carbon emissions, according to research from the Rodale Institute published earlier this week.