Good practice:

Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Emission Reduction Calculation Tool

The Greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emission reduction calculation tool (hereinafter - Tool) was developed in 2018 following the request of the Ministry of Agriculture of Latvia. This Tool allows agricultural enterprises to calculate GHG and ammonia emission reductions following algorithms based on the country-specific emission factors. Consolidation of GHG and ammonia calculation algorithms is one of the main innovative solutions of the good practice, which allows to understand the nitrogen circulation in the farm and to identify nitrogen losses. The Tool combines GHG and ammonia calculation algorithms enabling complex assessment of the environmental impact of reduction measures, in particular with regard to the nitrogen cycle in the agricultural enterprise. The result of calculation of the Tool is used as evaluation criteria for granting funding from the Rural Support Service (RSS) for crop production, livestock breeding (cattle, pig, horse, sheep, goat), dairy farming, beekeeping and other livestock sectors. The Tool is also publicly available at www.llu.lv, so that anyone interested can calculate and assess the reduction potential of GHG and ammonia emissions for agricultural enterprise. In addition, the Tool is used for educational and scientific purposes to raise public awareness about GHG and ammonia emissions reduction opportunities.

Development costs of Tool: 22 000 EUR.
The working group consisted of 1 leading researcher, 2 researchers, 3 scientific assistants and 1 IT specialist.
Availability of the Tool is ensured by the RSS, and its maintenance is ensured by the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.

Farmers are able to carry out calculations on the Tool using the agricultural enterprise's basic information, and to choose the GHG and ammonia reduction measures that are the most appropriate for a particular agricultural enterprise. The use of the Tool provides competitive advantage over other applicants for receiving support from the RSS. The inclusion of this criterion in the project application template forces farmers to focus on mitigating the contribution to climate change.

After the translation of its interface the Tool could be used by the neighbouring countries of the temperate climate region. In countries with warmer climate, this would be necessary to change the GHG and ammonia emission coefficients used for the calculation algorithm.
In order to transfer this Good Practice to other European regions a new project should be developed, taking into account particular region's GHG and ammonia emission factors and language of the Tool.