For Agri-Industries

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture

Background

Scientists around the world have reached a consensus through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that human activities which lead to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission are having a discernable detrimental impact on the global climate. Estimates are that primary agriculture contributes approximately 10% of Canada's GHG emissions.

In response to this global issue, 160 countries, including Canada, agreed to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that called for a reduction in GHG emissions over 15 years to a level of 6% below its GHG emissions in 1990. Canada's current annual emission of GHGs is 694 megatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent. To meet the Kyoto protocol commitment, this number must be reduced by 129 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year by the 2008-2012 period.

The Government of Canada took action by creating a Climate Change Secretariat. This secretariat developed a process to assess climate change mitigation options, and initiated the Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change (AP-2000). Under the latter, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) received $33 million over five years for programs to address agricultural emissions of GHGs, including $12 million for the Model Farm Program ($5 million), Enhanced Shelterbelts Program ($4 million) and Biofuels Program ($3 million). The remaining $21 million is allocated to the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture to address agricultural GHG emission reduction in the areas of soil, nutrient, and livestock management. The program is a "get started" initiative to contribute towards the goal of reducing agricultural GHG emissions by 5.8 million tonnes per year of CO2 equivalent during the Kyoto commitment period of 2008-2012.

The GHG Mitigation Program involves identifying best management practices (BMPs) that reduce GHG emissions, raising awareness, and involving producers in adopting the practices for soil, nutrient and livestock management. Impacts on GHG reduction will be measured for specific BMPs, and results will be reviewed to improve existing BMPs. Examples of BMPs include fertilizer formulation and application practices, livestock feeding and manure handling practices, and soil management practices including enhanced carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration, also known as ‘sinks', involves the absorption of carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. Management practices, such as low-till agriculture, encourages carbon produced by plants to remain in the soil.

Program Objectives

The program's objectives are to reduce GHG emissions in the agriculture and agri-food sector by:

Meeting these objectives will help meet Canada's Kyoto commitment for reducing GHG emissions.

Program Description

The GHG Mitigation Program will initiate the long-term process of reducing net GHG emissions by addressing each of the three farm management areas of soil, nutrient and livestock management through elements that are common to all three: recommendations, awareness, and measuring and verification. The interrelationships are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Implementation Process

Figure 1: Implementation Process

The GHG Mitigation Program includes the following activities for Recommendation of Best Management Practices, Awareness, and Measuring and Verification.

a) Recommendations - Best Management Practices

The program will identify best management practices (BMPs) that address GHG emissions. These will be packaged into ‘suites' of BMPs to address on-farm GHG emission reduction and enhance carbon sequestration through improvements to soil, nutrient and livestock management practices. The suites will be comprised of a variety of BMPs for regional outreach and demonstration, to encourage participation by producers across Canada. The program is aimed at encouraging producers to adopt BMPs that reduce GHG emissions and that also have economic benefits. For example, by improving fertilizer-application practices, producers can lower production costs while reducing GHG emissions.

To identify the suites of BMPs, a ‘Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Advisory Committee' has been created. It helps in the development of best management practices for reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sinks. It also provides guidance for the program delivery. The Advisory Committee membership includes research, producer, federal and provincial government, academic and industry expertise.

The Advisory Committee is supported by a Scientific Working Group which will carry out the technical review of BMPs and submitted proposals, verify results, and assemble BMPs into suites for the Advisory Committee's approval. The Scientific Working Group is comprised of four to five scientists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) with a broader reference group of experts.

National industry groups in the areas of livestock, nutrients and soils are responsible for making producers aware of the GHG mitigation practices through demonstration and communications activities. More specifically, AAFC is working with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian Pork Council, the Dairy Farmers' of Canada and the Soil Conservation Council of Canada on delivery of the awareness component of the program.

b) Awareness - Demonstrations and Communications

The GHG Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture will raise awareness among producers of the environmental importance and economic benefits of adopting BMPs through demonstrations and various communications and training vehicles. Adoption of the recommended practices is at the core of the GHG Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture. Adoption by producers will occur through their awareness of the BMPs and their opportunities to implement them.

For example, producers will be informed through demonstrations and communications activities of the economic benefits of adopting BMPs. These benefits could include:

The industry groups will be responsible for demonstration sites, such as farms run by innovative farmers who are using best management practices. They will ensure that the demonstration sites are shown to other producers through on-farm demonstrations and various communications and training vehicles. The communications activities could include workshops, information sessions, newsletter inserts, booths at agricultural shows, training sessions, and so on.

The industry groups will develop delivery approaches that the Advisory Committee will review. The Advisory Committee and the Scientific Working Group will provide technical reviews of proposals for decision by the industry groups. The review will focus on scientific integrity, applicability, appropriateness and expert advice.

A web site will be developed that will provide an alternate means of communication. This web site will be linked with related agri-environmental and climate-change-related web sites which house information on Canadian climate change programs (for example, Manure Net, and the Climate Change Secretariat's database of climate change initiatives).

c) Measuring and Verification

Quantifying the impact of management practices to reduce GHG emissions as a function of climate and soil conditions is an essential component of the GHG Mitigation Program. This measuring and verification component is linked with the Model Farm Program, a separate program under the Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change. The Model Farm Program is developing computer models that will be used to estimate the net GHG emissions from commercial farms based on management, soil and climatic conditions. The outputs from many model farm scenarios, each representing different farming systems, will be used to estimate net emissions from entire regions.

The Model Farm Program supports teams of scientists across the country who measure GHG emissions as a function of soil, crop, and livestock management practices on Canadian farms, including the demonstration sites under the GHG Mitigation Program. These scientists will use a wide range of measuring tools to quantify GHG emissions in a range of farming systems across the country. The measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes will be used to develop a composite model that can then estimate net emissions from whole farms. The reliability of this composite model (‘Model Farm') will be evaluated by further measurements at representative farms and research sites in diverse regions. Once developed and shown to be reliable, this composite model can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a suite of mitigation practices on GHG emissions from Canadian farms.

The Scientific Working Group will be responsible for verification activities under the GHG Mitigation Program, including developing methodologies and criteria to measure changes in GHG emissions resulting from implementing BMPs. The Working Group will visit demonstration sites to perform scientific measurements, which will be used for verifying the effectiveness of the BMPs being used.

d) Feedback

The Scientific Working Group completes the feedback loop by using the measuring and verification information to provide recommendations on BMPs for approval of the GHG Mitigation Advisory Committee. The committee then advises the national industry groups delivering the communications and demonstration activities.

For more information, media may contact:

Media Relations
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa
(613) 759-7972