Carbon Audits and Adaptation and Mitigation Plans (AMPs) to Support Farms in Improving their Environmental Performance

The improvement of farms’ environmental sustainability is both a priority and a challenge for farmers. They must develop ways to become more productive and sustainable while adapting to climate change and contributing to its mitigation. To succeed in this objective, it is relevant to develop a “Plan”. A plan is a set of actions designed to achieve something, an idea or method of doing something.
Planning applies to various areas, including farms. Writing a plan provides a clear vision of the goals, actions, resources (economic, human), and time needed to reach those objectives. Planning also helps identify weaknesses and obstacles that might occur during implementation and find possible solutions in advance to increase the chances of success.
The adaptation and mitigation plan (AMP) is a tool that helps farmers minimise the impacts of climate change on farms while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are no strict rules regarding the format of an AMP, but to be effective, it should include: a description of the current situation, the objectives, necessary actions, and the timeline.
A carbon audit measures the farm’s efficiency in terms of emissions and removals (carbon stored through sequestration). It requires an analysis of the entire production system and provides a baseline for emissions and sequestration. While the AMP can be created without the audit, the audit offers in-depth insights for better management of production inputs like energy, water, fertilisers, feed, and labour.
Carrying out the audit enables farmers and advisors to assess the actual success of the plan by comparing net emissions before and after implementation. During implementation, monitoring ensures that adaptation and mitigation measures (AMMs) are carried out as planned.
It helps farmers identify challenges, make adjustments, and improve strategies to meet AMP objectives. In Climate Farm Demo, a common AMP template was developed for use on 1,500 farms across Europe.