Welcome back to the Who’s Counting Newsletter!
Who’s Counting is the quarterly newsletter of the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions Network (I&NDC Network). We summarise scientific progress, opportunities, resources and events related to national agriculture inventory development, national agriculture climate targets, and international inventory capability-building activities.
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In Who's counting this quarter
In this Issue of Who’s Counting, we focus on some insights from Africa. If members have a particular region or issue they would like to be the focus of future Newsletters, we welcome you to get in touch (contact details at the end).
We are pleased to welcome Andrea Pickering back as co-lead of the I&NDC Network. Andrea has been actively involved in the Network since its inception, initially as a co-lead and more recently in an active supporting role. She currently works for the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre as their Programme Lead for agricultural greenhouse gas inventory capability building in Asia and the Pacific.
We would like to express our gratitude to Hazelle Tomlin for her significant contribution to the I&NDC Network over the past few years.
Spotlight: National livestock GHG inventories in Southern Africa moving to Tier 2 inventory systems with regional support
Best Practices:
- Overview Course on the Biennial Transparency Framework launched by the Secretariat
- Improving livestock GHG Inventories in Africa: Which model to use?
Success stories:
- Independent Global Stocktake (IGST) West Africa Regional Hub Launched
- Climate Change Mitigation Fellowship Program builds the capacity of over 170 early-career global south agri-climate researchers
People in action:
- 2023 GRA Council Meeting
- 21st Meeting of the IPCC EFDB
Events and Opportunities:
- Mitigate+ Webinar on Technical Expert Review
- Africa Climate Week 2023
- E-learning courses available for Agriculture GHG Inventory Compilers
- I&NDC Network 2022 Webinar Series - Recordings available!
- ICGGEA 2024: International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agriculture
- 18th International RAMIRAN Conference
- WEBINAR - Indicators to measure circularity: Developments and Considerations
Jobs Board:
- Post-Doctoral Animal Microbiome Fellow
Resources:
- Animal Health Newsletter, April 2023
Spotlight
Four Southern African countries move to Tier 2 GHG Inventory system
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries recognize the need for climate change mitigation through the reduction of GHG emissions, as evidenced by their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) plans and targets to reduce emissions. Adaptation is also a priority for agricultural systems, to manage differences in climate conditions. More advanced methods of compiling livestock GHG inventories are required to target national strategies and policies on climate change adaptation, GHG mitigation and livestock development objectives.
Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique participated in a regional Tier 2 GHG inventory project with financial support from the New Zealand Government. The project was implemented by the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), with technical support from the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) and the University of Pretoria (UP).
The countries were selected because they have similar cattle production systems (i.e., commercial ranching, emerging sector, communal sector) and a relatively high degree of a shared animal genetic base. In these countries, South African cattle genetics are dominant in the commercial beef and dairy sectors, with common local breeds dominating the communal sector. Against this background, there was a high potential for these countries to develop Tier 2 cattle GHG inventories based on a systematic review of herd structure and animal performance data in Southern Africa, including South Africa, and a process that supported national agencies to compile Tier 2 inventories using both national and regional data. The project was implemented from November 2021 to April 2023 and featured various national and regional activities towards developing national Tier 2 GHG inventories.
Best Practices
Overview Course on the Biennial Transparency Framework launched by the Secretariat
To support the transition to the enhanced transparency framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement, the Secretariat has launched Course A: “General and cross-cutting aspects for the technical expert review under the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement”.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the technical expert review under the ETF and its cross-cutting principles. It is mandatory for all experts to participate in the technical expert review, and takes approximately 4 hours to complete. It can be completed online or an offline version can also be downloaded. Two rounds of examinations have already been undertaken, with registration for the 3rd exam from 31 July to 20 August, with the exam over 11-13 September.
Improving livestock GHG Inventories in Africa: Which model to use?
The IPCC recommends using a more advanced (Tier 2) method to quantify livestock GHG emissions when enteric fermentation from livestock is a significant source of national GHG emissions. Enteric fermentation is a key category in many African countries’ national GHG inventories, and several countries are improving their national livestock inventories.
In this information brief, a comparison has been made of the emission factors for 26 sub-categories of dairy cattle and 59 sub-categories of beef cattle, calculated using both the IPCC and South African models. The results show systematic differences between the models and associated strengths and weaknesses.
Success Stories
Independent Global Stocktake (IGST) West Africa Regional Hub Launched
Speaking at the opening session of the event, the Executive Director of WASCAL, Dr. Moumini Savadogo said, “The iGST Hub is a clear demonstration that non-party stakeholders, the civil society organisations including experts and scientists have a fundamental role to play in the fight against climate change, and specifically in helping assess our progress and identifying the challenges and opportunities for accelerated climate actions, and working together to propose solutions pathways to 2030 and beyond”.
Throwing more light on the expected contribution of non-party stakeholders, he said, “Their contribution will help countries to update and strengthen their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to climate change action and support, as well as to enhance international cooperation for climate action, particularly in achieving the Paris Agreement’s objectives"
Climate Change Mitigation Fellowship Program builds the capacity of over 170 early-career global south agri-climate researchers
The CLIFF-GRADS program – a joint initiative of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and Mitigate+: Research for Low Emissions Food Systems (Mitigate+) – strives to narrow the capacity gap on climate change research in the Global South. It offers doctoral students from low- and middle-income countries opportunities to enhance their research skills. A network of 176 researchers from 37 countries has emerged from CLIFF-GRADS; several have taken up roles in international initiatives relevant to climate mitigation in agricultural systems.
Round 6 of the CLIFF-GRADS fellowship is currently open for student applications, with applications due by 28 August 2023.
People in Action
2023 GRA Council Meeting
The twelfth Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) Council meeting took place over 24-25 April 2023 in Madrid, Spain. For more information, please refer to the GRA web page by clicking on "Read more" or email secretariat@globalresearchalliance.org.
Key outcomes for I&NDC members include:
● New global Flagship Project approved during the meeting
● Global Methane Hub to be invited as official GRA Partner
● Science to policy communication working group to be established
● Mediterranean Agriculture Network on GHG mitigation to be launched, led by CIHEAM
South Africa will host and Chair the 2024 GRA Council meeting.
21st Meeting of the IPCC EFDB
The 21st Meeting of the Editorial Board of the IPCC Emission Factor Database (EFDB) was held over 16-19 May 2023 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The meeting was attended by the Editorial Board members, Co-Chairs of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI) and the Technical Support Unit of the TFI. The objectives of the meeting, among others, were:
- To evaluate outstanding and new data proposals
- To discuss issues related to the consideration of data proposals and how to improve the EFDB
This year 186 agricultural data points were considered along with data from 2 databases. 97 of the individual agricultural data points were accepted into the database, 24 of which were from 3 papers looking at livestock emissions from Kenya. A further 18 data points from these 3 papers were requested to be submitted and have subsequently been accepted into the database.
Events and Opportunities
Mitigate+ Webinar on Technical Expert Review
August 29, 2023, on MS Teams at 15:00 CET | GMT+2
The Technical Expert Review is a critical process in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Mitigate+ have prepared a webinar which will provide an overview of the review process and discuss how you can take part in the process and why you should.
The program for the Webinar is as follows:
Africa Climate Week 2023
Africa Climate Week (ACW) 2023 will take place over 4-8 September in Nairobi, hosted by the government of Kenya. ACW will be organised in parallel with the Africa Climate Summit over 4-6 September, also hosted by Kenya.
ACW forms one of four Regional Climate Weeks to be held in 2023 to build momentum ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai and the conclusion of the first Global Stocktake. The Weeks consider four major systems-based tracks with a view to providing region-focused contributions to inform the global stocktake:
● Energy systems and industry
● Cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport
● Land, ocean, food and water
● Societies, health, livelihoods, and economies
E-learning courses available for Agriculture GHG Inventory Compilers
Foundational e-learning courses are now available online on the GRA website (linked below). These have been developed to support people learning to compile national agricultural GHG inventories or anyone who may wish to increase their knowledge on international climate obligations and emission reporting. The courses are:
- Course 1: Climate change science. Suitable for anyone wanting to improve their understanding of the science behind global warming.
- Course 2: International climate change policy. Suitable for people wanting to improve their understanding of the agreements behind national climate change negotiations and obligations.
- Course 3: Introduction to GHG accounting provides an overview of the science specific to Agricultural GHG emissions and reporting.
The courses are free to take, but require registration so that progress can be tracked and a certificate supplied at the end of each course to participants.
I&NDC Network 2022 Webinar Series - Recordings available!
From May through to July 2022, the I&NDC Network held three informational expert panel-style webinars. The first session facilitated a discussion on the political dimension of agriculture inventories in the context of decisions on agriculture emission mitigation policies, determination of national emission targets, and sector goals for voluntary or mandated emission targets, with invited speakers from Canfax Canada, European Commission, AGNES Africa, the Global Dairy Sustainability Framework, Chile’s national inventory team and INIA Uruguay. The second session brought together expert speakers whose work focuses on improving agriculture inventory activity data-related issues to discuss a universal challenge for national compilers - activity data collection and its management. The third session focused on determining inventory research priorities when resources for research are limited and possibilities for multi-country research collaborations.
FAO National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Curriculum
The FAO National Greenhouse Gas Inventories curriculum aims to strengthen institutional and technical capacities in national entities, to enable them to meet the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. It consists of a series of e-learning courses which have been released progressively since November 2020, and includes:
- Course 1 - Preparing a greenhouse gas inventory under the enhanced transparency framework
- Course 2 - The national greenhouse gas inventory (NGHGI) for agriculture
- Course 3 - The national greenhouse gas inventory (NGHGI) for land use
- Course 4 - Assessing uncertainties in the national greenhouse gas inventory: a focus on land use
- Course 5 - Estimating methane emission from enteric fermentation using Tier 2 method
Access to these courses via the FAO elearning Academy is free (just need an email address to login), with all courses providing a final exam. Passing the exam (achieving a grade of at least 75%) provides you with certification via FAO digital badges.
ICGGEA 2024: International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agriculture
July 22-23, 2024, in Berlin, Germany
The International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agriculture aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
Prospective authors are kindly encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference by submitting their research abstracts, papers and e-posters.
18th International RAMIRAN Conference
September 12-14, 2023 in Cambridge, UK
The Recycling of Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial Residues in Agriculture Network (RAMIRAN) is a research and expertise network set up more than 25 years ago to improve nutrient utilisation and minimise the environmental impact of livestock manure and other organic material used in agricultural systems. This conference was last held in 2017 and attracted up to 250 delegates from Europe and beyond.
The conference will include sessions on:
- Policy and regulation
- Nutrient utilisation
- Soil quality
- Air and water quality
- Treatment and processing technologies
- Promoting best practice
WEBINAR - Indicators to measure circularity: Developments and Considerations
September 15, 2023
The Circular Food Systems Network is organising a webinar on indications for circular food systems. They would like to discuss a range of questions, including:
- Can we measure circularity?
- How would we do that?
- What are the limitations of using indicators?
- Indicators are a way to measure circularity, but are there alternatives?
- How important is it to measure circularity?
Jobs Board
Post-Doctoral Animal Microbiome Fellow
Closing Date - 2 October 2023
The successful candidate will be based at the Animal and Bioscience Research Department, Teagasc Grange, Co. Meath. While most of the research programme will be conducted on-site, performing genomics-based microbial profiling, the successful applicant will be involved in collecting biological samples and recording methane emissions and performance data on beef cattle at Teagasc Grange. In addition, some work will be conducted on dairy cattle herds at Teagasc Moorepark, Co. Cork and sheep flocks at Teagasc Athenry, Co. Galway.
Resources
Animal Health Newsletter, April 2023
The April 2023 Animal Health Network Newsletter is now available online. This edition covers what the Network has been doing these past few months, including:
- Participating at events
- Building opportunities for the future
- Writing projects
- Organising workshops
- Introducing new AHN members
We welcome suggested content for the next issue of Who's Counting. Please email INDC.GRA@gmail.com for all suggestions.
