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FAO/LRG Collaboration
to better quantify global
agricultural mitigation potential
In contrast, when it comes to the better
quantification of the potential of agriculture
to contribute to the GHG mitigation (both
technical and economic potential), the
same progress has not been made. The
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report found that
the most cost-effective mitigation options
in agriculture were in cropland and grazing
land management and restoration of organic
soils. Based on a range of studies, the IPCC
estimated a global mitigation potential of up
to 1.6 Gt CO
2
e in 2030 at a cost up to US$20/
tCO
2
e, and up to 4.6 Gt CO
2
e at a cost up to
US$100/tCO
2
e.
However, these estimates rely in many
cases on studies that considered mitigation
options in isolation; the report also noted
the difficulty of estimating accurately the
regional distribution of future mitigation
potential. It is therefore critical to improve
our knowledge of the technical mitigation
potential of individual mitigation actions,
and their relevance to specific agricultural
systems; and there is a growing realisation
that mitigation actions cannot be considered
in isolation; true mitigation potential needs
to consider ‘baskets’ of actions assessed
in terms of impacts on multiple gases and
synergies or trade-offs between individual
actions.
Over the past 3 years, the Animal Production
and Health Division of FAO developed the
Global Livestock Environmental Accounting
Model (GLEAM). GLEAM pulls together
the existing knowledge on production
practices and emissions pathways to
create a framework for disaggregation
and comparisons of emissions on a global
scale. The model is developed for six animal
species (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs,
chickens) and related edible products. It
recognizes two farming systems for ruminant
species (mixed and grazing), three for pigs
(backyard, intermediate and industrial)
and three for chicken (backyard, industrial
egg and industrial meat). Altogether, this
amounts to over 14,000 supply chains,
defined here as unique sets of commodity,
farming system, country and climatic zone.
The physical area corresponding to each of
these sets is further decomposed in cells in
a Geographical Information System.
Considerable effort by a number of organisations has gone into obtaining more accurate predictions of agricultural
greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) at the global and regional scale. These efforts have resulted in a number of
databases and models now being available that can be used to calculate emissions for specific agricultural systems
using standard methodologies and standard publicly available data sources (e.g. FAO, EDGAR).