‘Milestone’ report for carbon accounting published
30th January 2024
The long-awaited report with much-needed guidance for food and farming industries on appropriate standards for carbon reporting has recently been published.
Defra’s ‘Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture’ seeks to achieve greater accuracy of outputs from carbon calculation tools and presents standards to comply with when carrying out farm-level carbon assessments.
The food and farming industries have welcomed the report, having long sought guidance on carbon reporting. As part of the project, 81 global carbon calculators were reviewed, with the report analysing in detail the six most relevant for UK farming.
Modern tools
Dr Emily Pope, managing director of knowledge and collaboration at Trinity AgTech is optimistic about the impact of the report, which denotes clear minimum standards for carbon accounting tools.
Dr Pope said: “Farm-level carbon accounting is currently completely unregulated, meaning there is significant divergence in calculation methodology and the resulting information; this is reducing trust, stalling decarbonisation efforts, and preventing proper recognition and reward.
“One of the report’s key recommendations is to adopt tools that present reliable data, in line with ISO standards 14064:2 and 14067 and the draft GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals guidance, which is supportive of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
“Most businesses currently doing carbon accounting in the UK rely on old tools that adhere to outdated standards, such as PAS2050:2011, or methods that do not adhere to a recognised standard or protocol.
“These tools fail to represent the complexity of modern agriculture.”
Dr Pope therefore welcomes Defra’s acknowledgement that the poor alignment of old tools with modern standards is restricting the ability of farmers to access incentives and requirements around emissions reduction.
Desperately needed
She adds: “That’s why this report was so desperately needed, businesses need to understand which standards to align to and which software achieves these standards. The report identifies that there is only one calculator that aligns with the standards endorsed by Defra, that’s Trinity’s Sandy navigation platform, denoted as calculator E within the report.
“It’s always been Trinity’s vision to develop a practical, scalable, and agile natural capital navigator that aligns with the latest reporting standards and that has the power to deliver an agricultural transition in which everyone benefits.
“This starts at farm level; if we can’t improve profitability for farmers, producing food while delivering environmental improvements becomes untenable,” says Dr Pope.
For more information, and to read the full report on Defra’s Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture from Science Search, click here.
Read more rural articles here.
