Agribalyse

Agribalyse follows the European Environmental Footprint calculation method EF3.1 adapted for Simapro (version 1.00), with climate change distinguished by the three sub-indicators proposed by EF3.1 (biogenic emissions, fossil fuel emissions, and land-use change emissions).

Emissions data for each activity is split into six lifecycle stages plus a total of all stages

• Agriculture (agriculture)
• Transformation (transformation)
• Emballage (packaging)
• Transport (transport)
• Supermarché et distribution (supermarket_and_distribution)
• Consommation (consumption)
• Total (total)

Climatiq has added a lifecycle stage “cradle_to_gate” that combines the first four stages: agriculture, transformation, packaging and transport.

Each of these stages is split into:

• Fossil
• Land-use change
• Biogenic emissions (carbon dioxide and methane)

Alignment with FLAG and GHGP Land Standard

The Agriculture stage includes the main sources of FLAG / Land emissions. For example:

• methane from manure spread on land (biogenic emissions) [Land]
• nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer - n-volatilization (fossil emissions) [Land]
• methane from paddy fields (biogenic emissions) [Land]
• Land-use change (land-use change) [Land]
• methane from cattle (biogenic emissions) [Non-land]

Biogenic, land-use change (LUC), and fossil emissions are available across all lifecycle stages (agriculture, transformation, packaging, transport, supermarket_and_distribution, consumption, total, and cradle_to_gate). This enables calculation of both Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), defined as the sum of all three sub-indicators, and FLAG values.

FLAG values are calculated by Climatiq as the sum of biogenic CO2e and land-use change CO2e across all lifecycle stages, except for agriculture, where total CO2e (the sum of all three sub-indicators) is used as a proxy for FLAG emissions.

For the full methodology see: https://doc.agribalyse.fr/documentation-en/agribalyse-program/agribalyse-supporting-ecological-transition

The Environment Footprint (EF3.1) standard does not align directly with SBTi FLAG and GHGP Land Sector guidance.

The five lifecycle stages and three subindicators (fossil, land-use change, biogenic) do not align cleanly with FLAG and Land.

The Agriculture stage contains sources of emissions that may not fall within the FLAG and Land definitions e.g. fossil fuel combustion, farm machinery, production of farm inputs although in most cases these are likely to be relatively small.

Land-use change

Land-use change in Agribalyse includes gains and losses in soil carbon from changes between main crops, meadows, and vineyards . It is negative (i.e. representing carbon removals) in some cases, particularly for foods containing tree-based crops such as olives and mandarins. Note that carbon removals may not be permitted under SBTi and GHGP Land-sector guidance and you may wish to exclude these negative land-use change values when reporting under these standards.