PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
For the accounting of the field emissions at country level, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines for compiling the national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories provide three calculation pathways (or Tiers):
Tier 1 includes low-accuracy methodologies, which can be applied by using the default emission factors provided by the IPCC, which are not comprehensive in terms of attributing emissions reductions to some indirect measures that can be undertaken by a specific sector; Tier 2 methodologies, which require the use of national emission factors reflecting local pedo-climatic characteristics; and Tier 3 methodologies, which are based on model simulations or in situ measurements. The Greek ministry of rural development and food recognises the need to gather more accurate data GHG from the agricultural sector for its annual reports to the ministry of environment and energy, the government department that is responsible for preparing the national greenhouse gas inventory. At present, the Greek ministry of rural development and food implements a Tier 1 approach.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE ClimaMed project aims to develop and deliver innovative, reliable, rapid and cost-effective technologies of Tier 3 level for the on-site measurement of CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions and soil organic matter (SOC) stock changes from agricultural fields in real time, in order to facilitate scientists, public authorities and policy-makers in collecting, quantifying, evaluating, mapping and reporting spatial data for GHG emissions, and SOC stock changes, derived from the Mediterranean agricultural sector.
Specifically, the project aims to:
Improve the accuracy of reporting GHG emissions and SOC changes, as compared with the current accounting Tier 1 methodology, by developing GHG/SOC measurement protocols, based on the collection of real time spatial data; Establish an operational centre for the monitoring of GHG emissions and SOC changes from fields at the Greek ministry of rural development and food; Develop a draft legislative act for the Greek Parliament to adopt the relevant CLimaMed proposals/outputs and draw up three proposals for legislation in Cyprus Italy and Spain; Identify the relationship between agricultural practices and GHG emissions, as well as with SOC stock changes, for the most important Mediterranean agricultural products, i.e. olives, grapes, cereals, pistachios and certain vegetables; and Develop and establish a certification system (e.g. green certificates, low carbon certificates) for products with a low carbon footprint based on real-time measurements in order to reward green farmers. Expected results:
Development of protocols for measuring, calculating, reporting and mapping of GHGs emissions and SOC stock changes from agricultural fields; Development of a GIS-based web platform for the monitoring and management GHG emissions and SOC stock changes from agricultural areas at local, regional and national level. This will be achieved through: o The production of an innovative device (LIDAR) for GHGs measurement on-site and at field level; o The quantification of SOC stock changes through the use of devices and procedures developed by the project; o The development of a telemetry system for data collection, management and transmittance to the monitoring platform.
Identification of hot spots, in terms of GHG emissions and implementation of targeted measures for reduction at field level; Estimation of the carbon footprint of major Mediterranean cultivations (olive, grapes, cereals, vegetables and pistachios) based on absolute measurements; A draft legislative act to be processed by the Greek parliament for the adoption of project outputs; Certification of green products with low carbon footprint, through a certification system to be introduced by the project; and A roadmap for the implementation of innovative technologies to measure and monitor GHG emissions and SOC stock changes in different productive European sectors.
