This presentation formed part of the Farming Futures workshop " Focus on: Anaerobic Digestion". (18th September 2008)

1. Workshop on AD
18 September 2008
Nicola Currie
CLA Regional Director

2. The importance of Climate
Change for land managers
• The impacts are mixed, but mostly negative
– Denser CO2 and warmer
– But droughts, floods and storms
– More plant and animal disease spread
– Greater volatility to manage
• Hence CLA work on this subject
– Climate Change and the Rural Economy 2001
– Public Goods from Private Land 2005
– Climate Change and the European Countryside 2006
– High Level Climate Change Task Force 2007
– CALM 2008

3. The CLA is pre-eminent in doing
work on climate change and
the land sector.’
Jonathan Porritt
Director Forum for the Future and
Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

4. The development of CALM
• Started as an idea by Norfolk member Michael
Sayer.
• First built for a CC project on 21 European Estates,
developed with the Climate Change Unit of the
UEA with generous support from EEDA and others.
• We decided to develop an online version to be
publicly available.
• This has been a collaborative effort with Savills
Research Team and, again, kindly sponsored by
EEDA and the Crown Estate.

5. CALM - the purpose
• To raise awareness of climate change
• To focus management attention on emission
reduction and increase of sequestration
• To be ready to deal with reduction targets
• To prepare for participation in carbon offsetting and
trading

6. CALM - the concept
• CALM is free and everyone can use it!
• It is an on-line, business-based calculator of a farm’s
annual flows of GHGs, (emissions and sequestration).
• CALM uses the internationally agreed IPCC
methodology together with accounting guidelines
approved by Government, for business to understand,
quantify and manage GHG emissions.
• We have taken the methods used for the national
assessment of our industry and adapted them for
application to individual businesses

7. What it includes
• Following Government protocols CALM measures:
– Scope 1 direct emissions from this business:
• Fuel use in farm tractors & other vehicles & heating
• Nitrogen fertilisers
• Animal manure
• Crop residues
• Land use change – can be positive or negative
– Scope 2 indirect emissions
• Emissions created in generation of electricity used in
the business
– Carbon sequestration in soils, woodland and forest
• It also reports on
– Scope 3 indirect emissions, of significance but not
controllable by the business
• Emissions associated with N fertiliser manufacture

8. Health warnings
–Complex subject, science is developing fast
–Much controversy about what and how to
measure. Greatest variance in N2O and CH4
emission factors. Official accounting methods and
factors will inevitably lag the science.
–It measures GHG effect of what a business does.
Different business decisions will reflect different
GHG outcomes, e.g. buy feed or feed own grains.
NB
–It is not product-based carbon footprint calculator

9. CALM, how to do it
• Accessed through the CLA website
– www.cla.org.uk and click on
• User log-in to enable data to be saved
– No personal data sought, confidentiality guaranteed
– Enables year on year comparisons
– Updating results as ‘factors’ are changed
– ‘What if’ calculations with farming system
• Data Entry and calculation
• Results: running total, several reports
• Interpretation and guidance: what can I do?

15. South East English Mixed Estate
• Land Use 674 ha
– Arable 286 ha
• wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape, S-A
– Grass incl. maize 313 ha
– Woodland 75 ha
• Livestock
– 240 dairy cows, 350 dairy followers &
other cattle
• Other data
– Energy use – all forms
– Nitrogenous fertilisers used
– Animal manure
– Crop residues
– Woodland type, age and management

16. Carbon account for a S E England
Mixed Estate – summary
Emissions t CO2 e %
– Energy use 251 11
– Fertilisers 477 21
– Cattle 1,435 62
– Crops and Grass 165 7
– Contracting -11
– Total emissions 2,317 100
Sequestration
– Woodlands 991
Balance (emissions) 1,326

17. What can a farmer do about it?
• First, know his emissions and sequestration
• Do what-if calculations varying his land use
• Then consider
– Energy efficiency
– Fertiliser use efficiency
– Manure systems
– Renewable energy

18. Finally - CALM some statistics
• The most sophisticated land-based business calculator,
It has:
• 349 data entry items
• 9,584 equations
• 683 constants
• Over 4000 people have logged on to the calculator on
our website
• So why not go and log on too when you get
home today!

19. Contact nicola.currie@cla.org.uk