Economic and Policy Analysis of Climate Change
©FAO/Jeanette Van Acker

Overview

Agriculture accounts for almost one fourth of all the greenhouse gas emitted by humans. If food processing is added, this share rises to more than one third.  Agriculture is also a victim of the changing climate – extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and land degradation are undermining the sector's productivity – and putting many livelihoods at risk. Yet, with the right set of policies and investments, agriculture can be a part of the solution. Policies and investments must help to reduce deforestation, help to restore degraded land, and promote sustainable agricultural practices and biodiversity conservation.

The EX-Ante Carbon Balance Tool (EX-ACT) suite gathers the evidence complementing the information available to decisions makers on the outcomes of their agrifood interventions. It helps them to quantify the amount of greenhouse gas released or sequestered from agricultural production, analyse the outcomes of activities from agrifood investments along a selected agricultural value chains and assess the impact of agricultural activities on local biodiversity.

Video available also in French and Spanish.

The EX-ACT suite of tools

  • Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool | EX-ACT quantifies the amount of greenhouse gas released or sequestered from agricultural production. It covers the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, coastal and inland wetlands, fisheries and aquaculture, agricultural inputs and infrastructure. It can be used at any stage of the intervention – the design, monitoring and evaluation of projects and policies to support informed decision-making processes. It can assess individual projects and policies, but also investment portfolios as well as national level programs and strategies.
  • EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool for value chains | EX-ACT VC  analyses the effects of interventions along the agricultural value chains. It supports policy makers in identifying off-farm sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and farm-to-retail socio-economic benefits when designing projects and policies for low carbon value chains. It supports analysis of interventions at small and medium scale.
  • Biodiversity Integrated Assessment and Computation Tool | B-INTACT looks at the biodiversity impacts of agricultural activities. It makes use of various geo-referenced maps and tools to increase accuracy and account for the ecological value and biodiversity sensitivity of intervention sites. It can be used at any stage and at any scale of the intervention.