BASF: Carbon Emission Reduction in Agriculture—From Transparency to Business

Agriculture is directly impacted by climate change and at the same time is a significant contributor to Greenhouse Gases (GHG) globally. About 17% of global emissions come from farming and livestock (GHG Protocol. Agriculture guidance | Greenhouse Gas Protocol [online]. Available at: https://ghgprotocol.org/agriculture-guidance, 2022). To reduce these emissions, a detailed understanding, measurement, and tracking of the emissions along the entire food value chain is needed. This brings methodological and practical challenges to collect and share primary data from within a very complex value chain. If the world more generally, and industry more specifically, is to generate a relevant environmental and climate impact, economic incentives must be given if we are to scale the adaptation of carbon reduction and to certify them under robust protocols. About 14 years ago, BASF introduced AgBalance® as a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool for the agricultural industry according to the LCA methodology standards. The first step to measure was done, but a scalable business was not in sight at that time. Only a few innovative companies were interested in a fact-based and comprehensive sustainability assessment on a single study level. Now, the topic of carbon reduction has fully unfolded in the food sector with clear reduction targets through for example, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). This paper addresses the link between measuring carbon emissions with building a business, where farmers track their emission reductions and benefit from payments from the food industry, whereas the food industry companies get full transparency for their Scope 3 emission reduction and can contribute to the decarbonization of agriculture. Only scalable models with a clear business benefit and with incentives for farmers will have a relevant impact on the sector’s emissions.