Creating Tools and Recommendations to Assist Producers with Utilize Carbon Offset Protocols
In 2012, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AF) commissioned a set of protocol validation studies (PVSs) to gather learnings from the application and validation of agricultural protocols. Funded through the Biological Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Program in 2012, the PVSs produced several tools to assist project developers and producers establish agricultural offset projects under the selected protocols.
In Alberta at the time, several agricultural carbon offset protocols were available for use; however, only the Quantification Protocol for Conservation Cropping was widely used. What set the Conservation Cropping Protocol apart was a performance standard baseline and a standardized quantification approach, which simplified and enabled adoption. In contrast, the other protocols studied – Beef Reduced Days on Feed (DOF), Beef Reduced Age to Harvest (RAH) and Nitrous Oxide Emission Reductions (NERP) – required establishing three-year project-specific baselines. Project-specific baselines require more data and documentation, making them cumbersome to adopt. As a result, many animal and cropping operations did not have all the information needed to calculate and substantiate GHG reductions under these protocols. Completed in 2015, this project determined the main barriers associated with implementing the protocols and created tools and recommendations to assist with the barriers identified.
Determining Barriers with Agricultural Carbon Offset Programs
During the project, the researchers identified that few producers have the required data and evidence to support the three-year historic baseline needed to implement the NERP related to nitrous oxide. There was also significant variability in how farmers measured yield and the accuracy of those measurements. To resolve these issues, a dynamic baseline quantification approach and a set of acceptable crop mass determination methods were developed and included in the protocol when it was later modified. The project also determined the most significant obstacle to implementing the RAH protocol for beef harvesting was obtaining a confirmation of animal death. Shipping manifests contain average harvest dates, but do not contain individual harvest dates; this made it difficult to utilize the RAH protocol, which required individual harvest dates. While no tools were produced to increase uptake of the RAH protocol, the project recommended that the protocol be changed to allow the use of average harvest dates.
What’s next?
Since the completion of this project, the Quantification Protocol for Conservation Cropping and Beef Reduced Age to Harvest protocol have been withdrawn. The Quantification Protocol for Conservation Cropping was withdrawn in 2020 after an assessment determined that 60 to 75 per cent of applicable farmland was implementing the no-tillage techniques without reliance on the protocol. The Reduced Age at Harvest of Beef Cattle Protocol had minimal uptake as variation in market conditions, feed availability and other factors created practical issues for farmers to utilize the protocol. Consequently, the protocol was withdrawn in 2020. Additionally, the Quantification Protocol Reducing Days on Feed of Beef Cattle was replaced with the Quantification Protocol for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fed Cattle. The new protocol quantifies GHG reductions resulting from alterations in feeding strategies and other technologies instead of quantifying GHG reductions resulting from a reduction in the number of days of beef cattle in a feedlot. While most protocols studied in this project were withdrawn or replaced, the project provided valuable insight into what factors can make similar protocols inaccessible or impractical to producers.