Description of the Agrosfär model – a tool for climate impact assessment of crop and animal production systems in Sweden : Version 1: Crops, milk and beef

Abstract

The agricultural sector in Sweden needs to cut GHG emissions and contribute to the climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2045. The GHG reduction goal for agricultural emissions is not quantified, but the Swedish climate policy framework states that ‘the Swedish food production shall increase as much as possible with as little climate impact as possible’ and multiple key actors within the sector of food and agriculture have developed roadmaps or industry specific goals for reducing GHG emissions from the sector. Consequently, requirements of transparent GHG accounting and reporting are increasing within the agricultural sector, both at national and international level. The purpose of the Agrosfär tool is to establish an automatic data driven climate calculator used to calculate GHG emissions from agricultural products and on farm enterprise level. The automation and automatic data collection will save time, increase accuracy of the calculations, and simplify updates of the tool to keep it aligned with the most recent climate data and climate reporting methodology. It will make it possible to continuously carry out follow-ups on climate performance indicators and measure improvements from climate measures taken. A working group consisting of Swedish agricultural life cycle assessment experts have developed the framework of the tool, e.g. setting system boundaries, selecting methodologies and input data. A technical team has developed algorithms, a digital interface and coupled the tool to other existing agricultural databases providing farm specific information on crop and animal production data, soil characteristics, carbon footprints and amounts of purchased inputs etc. The tool and user interface have been developed based on input from farmers through prototyping and in-depth interviews. For general guidelines on methodology the calculation model follows the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), the International Dairy Federation (IDF)’s approach for carbon footprint for the dairy sector and FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance guidelines (FAO LEAP). Where standards have diverged or where assumptions have been required the working group has made expert judgements on which method/guideline to follow or what assumptions to make. A first version of the tool, a so called minimal viable product (MVP) has been developed which will be the basis for further development. The MVP contains an animal and crop module and can calculate the carbon footprint of crops, milk and beef. Future development possibilities of the tool and calculation model is described in chapter 7, such as enabling climate calculations on enterprise level, develop modules for more animal production types, deepen the integration between the crop and animal modules, expand sources for automatic data collection, develop a carbon sequestration module and other technical and methodological improvements to ensure alignment with important climate reporting standards. The report will be repeatedly updated as the tool develops, and new versions of the tool are released