Download EX-ante Appraisal Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT)

Online resource materials for policy-making
The EX-ante Appraisal Carbon-balance Tool
(EX-ACT)
Martial Bernoux
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD, France
Louis Bockel
Policy Assistance Division (TCA) – FAO, Italy
Giacomo Branca
Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) – FAO, Italy
1
The EX-ante Appraisal Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT)
1. Background
Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gasses (GHG), contributing 14% of global
emissions or about 6.8 Gt of CO2 equivalents per year (IPCC 2007). When combined with
related land use changes, including deforestation (for which agriculture is a major driver), this
share becomes more than one-third of total GHG emissions. Therefore, technical climate
change (CC) mitigation potential for the sector is high. Also, the agricultural sector is
particularly attractive in terms of abatement costs, since many abatement options are cost
neutral or even net-profit-positive (increases in agricultural production in a sustainable way),
with low capital investment required (IPCC 2007). Moreover, many of the technical options
are readily available and could be deployed immediately:
o reducing emissions of carbon dioxide through reduction in the rate of deforestation
and forest degradation, adoption of improved cropland management practices (reduced
tillage, integrated nutrient and water management);
o reducing emissions of methane and nitrous oxide through improved animal
production, improved management of livestock waste, more efficient management of
irrigation water on rice paddies, improved nutrient management; and
o sequestering carbon through conservation farming practices, improved forest
management practices, afforestation and reforestation, agro-forestry, improved
grasslands management, restoration of degraded land.
As 74% of agriculture’s mitigation potential is in developing countries, mitigation options can
also contribute to increase food security and reduce rural poverty (75% of the world’s poor
live in rural areas in developing countries, and most depend on agricultural for their
livelihoods) (World Bank 2008). Thus, many forestry and agriculture development
projects/programmes can play an important role in climate change mitigation, either by
reducing emissions or by sequestering carbon. Nevertheless, there is a lack of methodologies
that would help project designers to integrate significant CC mitigation effects in agriculture
and forestry development projects.
2. Objectives of the tool
EX-ACT (EX-ante Appraisal Carbon-balance) is a tool jointly developed from three FAO
divisions (TCA, TCI and ESA) and it is aimed at providing ex-ante measurements of the
impact of agriculture and forestry development projects on GHG emissions and C
sequestration, indicating its effects on the Carbon-balance1 (figure 1).
1
C balance = reduced GHG emissions + C sequestered above and below ground.
2
Figure 1 – The logic behind the EX-ACT tool
C balance
(reduced
emissions + C
sequestered)
With project
Benefits of
the project
Without project
t0
End of
the project
Time
This ex-ante C-balance appraisal will guide the project design process and the decision
making on funding aspects, complementing the usual ex-ante economic analysis of
investments projects. EX-ACT will in fact help project designers to select the project
activities which have higher benefits both in economic and CC mitigation terms (added value
of the project). EX-ACT’s output could then be used in financial and economic analysis of the
project itself and identifying benefits and costs.
3. Basic contents of EX-ACT and main outputs
EX-ACT has been developed using mostly the Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas
Inventories (IPCC, 2006) completed with other existing methodologies (European
Environmental Agency, Afforestation/Reforestation CDM, voluntary C markets, ADEME2,
AFD3) as a base, in order to be acceptable from the scientific community.
EX-ACT consists of a set of linked Microsoft Excel sheets in which project designer will
insert basic data on land use and management practices foreseen under projects’ activities.
EX-ACT adopts a modular approach – each “module” describing a specific land use – and
following a three-step logical framework (figure 2):
a. general description of the project (geographic area, climate and soil characteristics,
duration of the project);
b. identification of changes in land use and technologies foreseen by project components
using specific “modules” (deforestation, afforestation/reforestation, annual/perennial
crops, rice cultivation, grasslands, livestock, inputs, energy); and
c. computation of C-balance with and without the project using IPCC default values and
– when available – ad-hoc coefficients.
2
Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie, France.
Agence Française de Développement. See AFD Carbon Footprint:
http://www.afd.fr/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/home/DemarcheRSE_AFD/Bilan_Carbone
3
3
Figure 2 – The EX-ACT Structure
Description
Climate
Dominant regional soil
Duration of the project
Components of the Project
Deforestation
Afforestation and Reforestation
Land Rehabilitation
Agricuture Land
Annual Crops
Agroforestry/Perennial Crops
Rice
Grassland
Other GHG Emissions
Livestock
Inputs
Project Investment
Modular approach
Results and cross-checks
EX-ACT is an easy tool to be used in the context of ex-ante project/programme formulation,
it is cost effective, and it has resources (tables, maps) which can help finding the information
required to run the model. It therefore requires a minimum amount of data that project
developers can easily provide and that are usually collected in the phase of project appraisal.
Also, EX-ACT works at project level but it can easily be up-scaled at programme/sector level
as well as at watershed/district/national/regional level.
The main output of the tool consists of the C-balance resulting from project activities. As an
example, figure 3 shows the results for a case study in Tanzania (the “Accelerated Food
Security Project” aimed at increasing maize and rice production and productivity in targeted
areas through the improved access of farmers to fertilizers and improved seeds). Results show
that although expanded fertilizer use will increase GHG emissions, the adoption of improved
land and integrated nutrient management practices will contribute to soil C sequestration so
that the net project effect will be the creation of a C sink, with positive effects in terms of
mitigation.
Figure 3 – An example of EX-ACT output: the case of the “Accelerated Food Security
Project” in Tanzania
Components of the Project
Deforestation
Afforestation and Reforestation
Land Rehabilitation
Agricuture Land
Annual Crops
Agroforestry/Perennial Crops
Rice
Grassland
Other GHG Emissions
Livestock
Inputs
Project Investment
Balance with Project (tCO2eq for 20 yrs)
Mean per year
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-14031669 this is a sink
-701583
0
0
-8904733 this is a sink
-445237
0
0
0
0
0
0
2442427 this is a source
122121
0
0
-20493976
-1024699
mean per ha
-0.97
4
4. Next steps
EX-ACT will go through a pre-testing process which will provide useful information to
improve the effectiveness of the tool and the consistency of its output, and will verify the type
and amount of data needed. Pre-testing will consist of: a desk-analysis which will use Staff
Appraisal Reports (SAR) and other available documents of some on-going projects; and
project formulation missions. Projects to be used as case-studies for the pre-testing will be
selected with the aim of represent a wide range of different ecosystems (e.g. tropical,
temperate, boreal) and agriculture activities (e.g. annual/perennial crops, forestry, livestock).
EX-ACT will also go through a peer-review process and will ultimately be “certified” in order
to be adopted from project designers in international organizations and agencies working on
agriculture (and forestry) development and/or involved in agriculture (and forestry)
investment projects.
5. Contacts
o M. Bernoux, Inst. Recherche pour le Développement (IRD): [email protected]
o L. Bockel, Policy Assistance Division (FAO): [email protected]
o G. Branca, Agriculture Development Econ. Div. (FAO): [email protected]
6. References
IPCC 2006. 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Prepared by the
National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme [H.S. Eggleston, L. Buendia, K. Miwa, T.
Ngara, K. Tanabe (eds)]. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan.
IPCC. 2007. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the
Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R.
Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)]. Chapter 8 Agriculture, pp 498-540.
Cambridge University Press.
World Bank 2008 World Development Report: Agriculture for Development Washington DC,
World Bank.
5