Monitoring and Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Potential in Agriculture 

Second workshop on statistics for greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gases database now available on FAOSTAT

A new domain on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has just been released on both FAOSTAT and it's new pilot version FAOSTAT3. This is intended as the first in a range of services aimed at agri-environmental indicators, to help member countries enhance their capacity to identify, assess and report environmental statistics.

“We are expanding our data services to a wide range of agri-environmental and socio-economic indicators, providing at the same time access to improved analysis tools, including the possibility to compare FAO data to those from other institutions, for instance data from the United States Department of Agriculture,” said Pietro Gennari, Director of the Statistics Division.

At the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) in Durban last year, countries agreed to report their greenhouse gas emissions at least biennially, starting end of 2014.

“It is in this context, and in relation to emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land uses, that the database can support the needs of FAO member countries,” said Francesco Tubiello, Natural Resources Officer, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division.

The newly added GHG database offers a complete time-series of emission statistics for all countries over the period 1990-2010. It provides countries with vital, regularly updated information to help them consistently identify, assess and report GHG emissions from their agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors, as part of the activity data they already report to FAO.

The emissions estimates are computed from FAOSTAT activity data following the internationally approved methodology for GHG reporting developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Progress made thus far includes a robust technical peer review of the GHG database from dozens of experts at FAO and around the world. The GHG data are now open to the public, facilitating feedback from countries.

FAO Employees and Members at the FAOSTAT side event at FAO Council

FAOSTAT3 offers free, easy access to data and introduces enhanced features tailored to the information needs of a wide variety of users. These include browsing and analysis of data, advanced interactive data download, cross-domain data search using free-text, and data exchange through web services.

The system is still evolving and users around the world are encouraged to provide comments and suggestions on the functionalities and performance of the new platform through the feedback system.

How to navigate to the GHG domain in FAOSTAT3
• 1. Select “Browse Data” from the menu bar on the top of the FAOSTAT3 page. This opens by default the FAOSTAT domain data page “Production”.
• 2. Click on “Emissions - Agriculture“ or “Emissions – Land Use“ on the left column to access the FAOSTAT GHG data domain.
• 3. Select the sub-domain of interest: several graphic representations are displayed by default at global level and averaged over the period 1990-2010.
• 4. Menus on top of the page allow users to modify the default graphics by choosing a single country, different years of analysis and other options specific to the sub-domain. The new data selections will be displayed in real time on the webpage.

Developing the GHG database

Countries regularly report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all sectors to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use changes (AFOLU). While developed countries publish detailed emissions accounts every year, many developing countries and especially least-developed countries lack the capacity to assess and report their emission levels, especially for their agricultural sectors. As a result, only a few developing countries have been able to submit GHG emission reports since 1990. In general:

• There is lack of information on GHG emission levels and trends in AFOLU. While fossil fuel emissions from the energy sector are published yearly by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for all countries, no international agency collects and reports such data regularly for AFOLU.
• Developing countries—where agriculture forestry and other land uses represent a key component of national economies and a driver for development—have limited capacity to report their GHG data and, as a consequence, not enough visibility in the climate policy debate, limiting their access to climate finance. They will nonetheless need to report their GHG emissions at two-year intervals, starting in 2014.  

FAO has significant potential to fill this information gap. First, through its access to long-term, internationally accepted global data on agricultural activities, FAO is uniquely positioned to develop a coherent GHG database for all AFOLU sectors by country. Second, FAO can act as an impartial institution and honest broker in assessing GHG emissions data, providing its country members with a quality control and quality assurance mechanism in support of national inventory reporting. Third, through the new database FAO can help identify climate responses that are consistent with key rural development objectives of its member countries, supporting actions that ensure food security while preserving natural resources, increasing resilience and creating new employment opportunities.

To this end, while the FAOSTAT GHG database is not a replacement for UNFCCC reporting requirements, it can provide significant support to FAO member countries along four key dimensions:

1. providing regular updates of global and regional trends in GHG emissions from AFOLU;
2. bridging gaps in capacity of member countries in assessing and reporting GHG emissions, considering new requirements under the Durban accords;
3. establishing a GHG emission benchmark for quality control and quality assurance; and
4. providing a coherent framework for national-level analysis and dialogue on GHG assessment and gaps.

Donors

The Monitoring and Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Potential in Agriculture (MAGHG) project is financially supported by Germany and Norway.