ACTION 4
Comprehensive environmental monitoring system and contribution to policy making
4.1 LIFE CLINMED-FARM contribution to the reference document on best available techniques for intensive pig and poultry rearing
BAT is a dynamic concept, so the revision of this document is an ongoing process. Thus, this action will take the opportunity offered by the European IPPC Bureau to report any results and research that may be relevant. The results of the evaluation of the techniques demonstrated in the project will be produced ensuring that the information obtained in the project is appropriately presented to the European IPPC Bureau and contribute to the development of new versions of the BREF document.
At the end of the project a technical report will be delivered containing a comprehensive description of all the techniques applied in each case study, the evaluation of their technical performance based on the data collected (operational stability) and a cost-benefit balance based on the results of the environmental, agronomic and energy monitoring. The evaluation will consider the net effect of the techniques operating individually and of the entire management system.
4.2. CLINMED-FARM contribution to the national inventories of the Mediterranean regions and to the EMEP/EEA Emission Inventory Guidebook developed by the Working Group on Emission Inventories and Projections
Although some improvements have been made recently, such as the latest 2019 IPCC refinement, which introduced new Tier 1 emission factors for soil N2O broken down by climatic regions including semi-arid regions, there is still a large variability of products, management systems and sources of that require further assessment of their actual potential as emitting sources. The results of this project will provide solid information in two Mediterranean areas on a wide range of agricultural practices and different by-products (from pigs: slurry, liquid fraction, digestate, etc.). A specific technical report will summarize the emission data obtained during 3 years of monitoring and will include:
– Evaluation of the emission reduction potential of demonstrated practices and techniques based on a case/control approach under Mediterranean conditions.
– Comparative assessment of estimated emission factors against official guidelines (IPCC, UNECE, scientific papers, etc.) and national inventories related to slurry management and agricultural practices.
These results will be presented to the Spanish Climate Change Office and will be submitted for evaluation in various scientific forums. This work aims to contribute to the development of research strategies and policy making.
4.3. Contribution of LIFE CLINMED FARM to carbon farming models and to European, national and regional policy making.
LIFE CLINMED-FARM aims to contribute to the definition of carbon farming models in Mediterranean areas. This action aims to generate knowledge to support its inclusion in a future CAP and in the action plans to be developed at regional and national level.
In line with the guidelines provided in the EC Communication “Carbon Farming Schemes in Europe-Roundtable” the LIFE CLINMED-FARM project will carry out its own working process focused on how to approach this challenge in Mediterranean areas, generating constructive discussions on this topic in the External Advisory Group Meetings. In these meetings a specific space will be dedicated to address the best strategy for the definition of Carbon Farming schemes in the Mediterranean context and useful information in the form of a technical document gathering all the relevant proposals and considerations reached by this working group throughout the project.
