Assessing the Cool Farm Tool and the GHG Protocol Draft Land Sector and Removals Guidance

Shifting expectations

These guidance documents have shifted the expectations surrounding carbon accounting and target-setting for land-based emissions, including farm-based emissions. The GHGp and SBTi typically define industry best-practice, and these documents are likely to become the most commonly used frameworks in business carbon accounting and target-setting. Therefore, it is important that the Cool Farm Tool (CFT) aligns with relevant new requirements, as users will want to be able to use CFT outputs in their corporate GHG accounting and associated accounting and management support services.

Identifying the current alignment of the CFT

This work was undertaken to identify the current alignment of the CFT with the new guidance documents, particularly the LSRG, which details greenhouse gas accounting and reporting requirements. We also reviewed the boundaries in the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, to look at what gaps we had. This will enable the development of a roadmap to outline the necessary steps and updates required for the CFT to be aligned with the key requirements of the new guidance documents.

What does the report outline?

The Executive Summary outlines three main aspects, which include the discrepancies between the CFT and the recently proposed LSRG, aspects that are beyond the tool's scope boundaries, and new functionalities that are within the tool's scope and are anticipated to be accessible in 2024, with some parts within CFT 3.0.

It is important to note that the guidance is draft and expected to be finalised in 2024. Given the complexity and importance of the document, we would not be surprised if deadlines for the final document version change. When the final guidance is published, we may need to change our plans for consistency with the final LSRG guidance.

For any additional information, please contact support@coolfarmtool.org.