Conducting a GHG assessment in the primary sector
The Paris Agreement gives us the objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Achieving carbon neutrality will inevitably require a change in the way we consume, travel and develop. This carbon neutrality will only be achieved if we reduce our emissions as a whole and especially all together. All sectors of activity must get involved.
Reducing emissions means, for example, reducing energy consumption, but there are many other ways of doing this. To identify these areas of reduction, we first need to determine which emissions need to be reduced most urgently. A greenhouse gas emissions balance (BEGES) provides a comprehensive assessment of the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted by an organization or a territory. It is important to carry out your carbon footprint by sector of activity.
A balance sheet not only serves to record greenhouse gas emissions, but also to identify ways in which an organization can reduce emissions. The fight against global warming involves limiting carbon emissions. The GHG balance sheet is therefore the ideal tool for achieving an energy transition and reducing its impact on the environment as much as possible.
The primary sector is also concerned when it comes to carrying out a GHG assessment!
The primary sector includes all activities whose purpose is to exploit natural resources: agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining, deposits.
This sector is the first to be impacted by global warming and could therefore benefit from the reduction of emissions, including its own. Agriculture and the agri-food industry are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The primary sector actors must have climate change as a primary concern if they want to continue their operations serenely.
Agricultural production can be profoundly altered by extreme weather events, the development of new pathologies, constraints on water resources, etc. Actions to fight against these climate changes can be easily carried out by everyone.
Controlling net greenhouse gas emissions is thus a major objective in limiting climate change.
Beyond the environmental benefit that may not echo the aspirations and priorities of some company managers, the realization of a carbon footprint allows to reduce costs and improve economic performance!
Indeed, the detection and reduction of GHG emitting items will inevitably result in substantial savings well above the cost of the assessment. Thus, better energy efficiency rhymes with a reduced bill!
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions on a farm can mean using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. This reduction in emissions could lead to the award of the "Label Bas Carbone". Farms with this label can obtain carbon credits that can be traded with companies working to offset their environmental footprint.
Some carbon emissions cannot be reduced. So, to achieve carbon neutrality, some companies are carbon offsetting. This involves investing in a sustainable project, such as reforestation or the development of renewable energy. In this way, it is interesting for farms to obtain a label enabling other companies to invest in your project. The completion of a GHG balance sheet is thus a strong new selling point for a farm.
Emissions in the primary sector
On a regional scale, and particularly in rural areas, the agricultural sector can account for up to a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of agriculture is not limited to actions on the farm: indirect impacts such as the production of materials, fertilizers or animal feed are generally significant and must be taken into account.
Agriculture is the 2nd largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in France. However, it has the particularity of being both a source of emissions and a sink for greenhouse gases, thanks to photosynthesis.
However, given its weight in global emissions, agriculture is called upon to contribute to the general effort to reduce GHG emissions and meet national and international targets. Like other sectors of activity, agriculture must reduce its emissions in order to participate in the collective effort to make the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The national low-carbon strategy (SNBC), introduced in 2015, is France's roadmap for conducting climate change mitigation policy. It aims to halve emissions from the agricultural sector between 1990 and 2050.
Unlike other economic sectors, it does not aim for a total elimination of GHGs in agriculture, since some of the GHGs produced by the primary sector are not derived from energy consumption and therefore cannot be eliminated. This limitation of greenhouse gases would make it possible to effectively combat global warming, and primary sector players must see the need for such a project.
In order to quantify emissions, it is therefore advisable to carry out a complete GHG assessment of your company's greenhouse gas emissions. The key to a complete GHG balance sheet is to understand the GHG emission sources. The items that emit the most must be those where the greatest reduction is needed. In this way, an early understanding of emissions enables action to be taken over the longer term, and more smoothly. Once the major emission sources have been identified, action can be taken to reduce them. Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions means doing our environment a favor. However, this process should no longer be a chore, but should be easy to involve as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
It is possible to carry out an assessment in the primary sector on the GCI platform!
The GCI calculator allows you to easily and quickly carry out a complete GHG assessment under regulations. With an optimized customer path and online support, the GCI calculator is easy to use. It is also 100% customizable and thus facilitates the realization of a balance sheet that respects the specific activity of the company as closely as possible, a guarantee of efficiency for the determination of actions to reduce its emissions.
After the creation of an account, the first step in the realization of a GHG assessment will be to designate the company's activity. About twenty proposals are available to help in the choice (industry, services, community, food processing, real estate, logistics, events, sports, ...). The primary sector is represented as well as the secondary and tertiary sector companies.
The questionnaire thus chosen can be customized by adding or deleting questions according to the company's particular activity.
It is divided into sections using an intuitive approach and allows data to be entered into 7 emission categories that cover all the regulatory emission items of the GHG Balance:
- energy,
- other direct non-energy emissions,
- assets,
- travel,
- materials,
- incoming services,
- as well as waste,
- and products sold.
In the case of agriculture, this questionnaire takes into account the type of farming practiced. It takes into account not only the type of spreading carried out, but also land-use management. Quantification leads to the identification of areas for reduction. Reducing a farm's carbon footprint means increasing its carbon storage capacity, but above all reducing its GHG emissions.
To reduce emissions, new agricultural practices must be introduced. Thus, favouring organic fertilizers over mineral fertilizers allows a reduction of GHGs due to the fact that the latter are more energy consuming than the former in terms of their manufacture and transport. This reduction is only one possible way, specialized accredited experts of the GCI platform Specialists in various fields are available to help each user at each step of the realization of a complete balance.
GCI aims to play an active role in reducing global emissions by helping emitting companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and, if necessary, offset non-reducible emissions.