Carbon Sequestration Seminar

In December 2017, Arla Foods invited dairy expert colleagues, researchers, authorities and expert organisations to a one-day seminar on carbon sequestration. The long-term ambition is to promote carbon sequestration in farming practices as a measure to mitigate climate change. The goal of the day was to get an agreement on how to capture all existing activities and continue the work on carbon sequestration to include it in current guidelines on carbon- and environmental footprint for the dairy and beef sectors.

The morning session consisted of research perspectives, to provide a better understanding of the potential of carbon sequestration, what actions support carbon stocks enhancement and how these actions can be quantified and incorporated into carbon assessments. The session highlighted some key challenges that are still to be addressed such as the most suitable time perspective to adopt in the analysis and also the potential differences with national reporting to the IPCC before consensus can be achieved. The session concluded with a summary of the challenges to merge science and business perspectives.

The afternoon session started with dairy and beef company perspectives, followed by initiatives of international organisations including the FAO, the EU PEF and the work of the International Dairy Federation.

Seminar participants expressed an appreciation of the challenges involved in reaching a common approach, but the willingness to share expertise and contribute to a collaborative approach was equally evident.

There was agreement at the end of the day that though further scientific effort is still necessary, now is the opportune time to bring the academic and industrial communities together to benefit from greater understanding of each groups’ knowledge and requirements.

Key Actions from the day:

• The livestock sector is to identify how best to actively engage with the current FAO LEAP activities where there is a TAG on soil carbon stock changes.
• Seek access to the LEAP matrix on the different approaches to calculating sequestration.
• Ensure that the IDF representation in the LEAP TAG on soil carbon stock changes are in a strong position to represent the dairy sector when attending the LEAP meetings through the engagement of a large number of both academic and sector organisations while also ensuring feedback to the IDF membership on developments made.
• Once the appropriate connections have been made and a review made of the activities, the Arla team will return to those attending the day with a proposed work program. Such a program should build on existing work and ensure that duplication existing efforts are avoided. It may involve reactivating the IDF LCA Action Team, as offered by the IDF.