The AFOLU Tool is a simulation tool that models greenhouse gas emission pathways from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change to help policymakers develop robust, evidence-based national climate mitigation plans within the LEAP modeling platform.
The SEI Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Tool assists policymakers and planners in simulating greenhouse gas emission pathways from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change—sectors central to national mitigation strategies in economies with substantial agricultural production and natural resources. It provides a transparent, scenario-based framework for assessing non-energy emissions across crops, livestock, soils, forestry, and land-use change. The tool supports the development of medium- and long-term emission trajectories and mitigation strategies that reflect national development priorities.
The tool is integrated into the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP), which is currently used by over 60,000 users to create medium- and long-term energy systems and GHG emission trajectories. Together, LEAP and the AFOLU tool enable the development of internally consistent energy and non-energy GHG emission reduction strategies. By leveraging LEAP's scenario-building capabilities, user-friendly interface and reporting capacity, users can explore different management strategies, facilitating the prioritization of key areas for mitigation action. The AFOLU tool applies the Tier 1 methodology in the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories to estimate emissions of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide (NOX) emissions, ensuring that mitigation scenarios align with national GHG inventories and transparency reporting guidelines.
The tool consists of a LEAP model of non-energy related GHG emissions from agriculture, forestry and land use in a hypothetical country Verdania, that can be easily adapted by users to their specific context. Specific instructions instructions can be found on the tools' gitPages.
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GHG Emissions Estimation
The AFOLU tool facilitates the estimation of methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from:- Enteric fermentation (CH4)
- Manure Management (N₂O and CH4)
- Soil management
- Direct emissions from application synthetic and organic fertilizers (application of animal manure, crop residues and grazing (N₂O)
- Indirect emissions from application synthetic and organic fertilizers due to atmospheric deposition, and leaching and run-off (N₂O)
- Urea application (CO₂)
- Rice cultivation (CH4)
- Wetlands emissions (CO₂ and CH4)
- Forestry, other land use and land-use change (LULUCF, CO₂)
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Adaptable Model: The tool is distributed as a LEAP model with branches for non-energy-related GHG emissions from agriculture and LULUCF sectors based on the hypothetical country Verdania with dry an cool temperate climate and can be easily adapted to specific national geographic and climatic contexts.
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IPCC-Compliant Methodology: The tool employs a combination of Tier 1 and 2 methods from the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, ensuring alignment with National GHG inventories and UN Transparency reporting guidelines
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Scenario-Building Capabilities: Leveraging LEAP's advanced scenario-building features, users can explore various management strategies and prioritize key areas for mitigation action.
The AFOLU tool can be downloaded directly from this GitHub repository.
- Install LEAP.
- Download the AFOLU tool from this GitHub repository and install in LEAP
- Configure the model for your specific national or regional context following the user manual.
- Build and compare different mitigation scenarios.
A comprehensive User Manual is included to guide users through:
- Identifying and adding national data requirements
- Calibrating to existing GHG emission inventories
- Adjusting for context-specific parameters and climate-specific emission factors
If you are interested in contributing to the AFOLU tool, please contact Charlotte Wagner.
This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0.
Charlotte Wagner -- LEAP-tool development
Chris Malley and Eve Palmer -- development of initial excel-based version
Charlie Heaps -- lead developer of LEAP
For questions or further information, please reach out to the maintainers via the Issues tab or contact Charlotte Wagner at charlotte.wagner[at]sei.org.