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The urgency to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly in the agricultural sector, has become paramount in the wake of escalating climate change. This urgency is underscored by the Paris Agreement's ambitious goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sectors, accountable for 22% of total global emissions, have been identified as significant contributors. This paper addresses the imperative need for strategic and comprehensive actions within agriculture to align with the 1.5°C pathway.
Focusing on two critical crops essential to the modern diet – rice and cocoa – this master's thesis aims to assess GHG emissions comprehensively, identify principal sources of emissions, and propose agricultural interventions with high GHG abatement potential. The research considers India as a major rice producer and exporter and Ivory Coast as the largest cacao bean producer and exporter globally.
Challenges in achieving emission reduction targets include the immense scale and heterogeneity of agricultural production systems. Each production system, influenced by factors such as geography, type of production, and farming practices, exhibits different emission sources and magnitudes. Moreover, farmers lack adequate incentives to adopt novel methods and technologies crucial for climate change mitigation.
The results reveal that direct emissions dominate in rice cultivation, primarily methane and nitrous oxide emissions from flooded paddy rice fields. In contrast, land use changes due to massive deforestation to accommodate growing demand for cacao accounts for most of the emissions in this agricultural sector. The paper identifies interventions such as alternate wetting and drying in rice cultivation and agroforestry in cacao production as effective strategies for climate mitigation.
However, significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the applicability, costs, and barriers to implementing these interventions. Enhanced research and development efforts are necessary to address these gaps and foster adoption by farmers. Transparent methodologies and accurate estimations of GHG abatement are crucial for guiding strategies toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and aligning with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
In conclusion, while challenges remain, agriculture holds the potential to achieve net-zero emissions with sufficient support, motivation, and concerted efforts across stakeholders. Enhanced research, development, and adoption of sustainable practices are essential for realizing this potential and mitigating the impacts of climate change on global food security.

greenhouse gases --- carbon footprint --- climate mitigation --- abatement strategy --- rice --- cacao beans --- cocoa --- interventions --- Paris Agreement --- net zero emissions --- climate change --- Ingénierie, informatique & technologie > Multidisciplinaire, généralités & autres

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BUT, France’s second-largest home equipment retailer, aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Realizing 93% of its total carbon emissions come from the products sold, BUT developed a semi-qualitative eco-scoring system to classify products by their eco-design level. So far, around one-third of products have been graded. Products with good eco-scores are then labeled as ‘eco-designed’. BUT wants to valorize this initiative in its carbon footprint report. The goal of this study is thus to assess the carbon footprint benefits of eco-designing six key furniture categories with the highest carbon footprints: mattress, bookshelf, kitchen box, fabric sofa, chest of drawers, and bed frames. The carbon footprint of eco-designed products is compared to the carbon footprint of non eco-designed products, following ISO 14067 guidelines about quantifying carbon footprint. A cradle-to-gate approach was chosen, covering raw material extraction to manufacturing. Inventories were built using data from eco-scoring grids, including material masses, recycled material share, wood supply and manufacturing energy inputs. This study is innovative in that it is based on representative quantitative data from 2,020 references, covering about 1,000,000 products sold. However, it focuses only on carbon footprint and uses moderate-quality data.

Results are consistent with literature for inventories, impacts per furniture piece, impacts per kg of furniture piece, and life cycle stage hotspots. The study shows a clear decrease in carbon footprint for three categories with eco-design, averaging a 20% reduction. This reduction is attributed to a higher share of recycled materials and sustainable wood, shorter wood supply chains, and cleaner energy sources for manufacturing. However, results are contrasting for the three other categories, as the eco-scoring system 1) does not take into account mass and energy efficiency per functional unit 2) does not rank materials based on their carbon footprint (a wood-based product has no advantage over a glass product for instance) 3) includes other impact categories without proper weighting. Sensitivity analyses on metal composition, impacts of recycled materials, and carbon storage in sustainable wood validated the main hypotheses.

To effectively achieve its decarbonizing objectives, BUT should consider several key actions. First, enhancing the quantitative nature of the eco-score computation would address the limitations of the current system and align it more with the principles of life cycle assessment. Additionally, digitizing the data collection process would enhance efficiency. Harmonizing the eco-scoring system with counterparts at a European level is essential to streamline data acquisition processes and enhance consumer decision-making. Moreover, BUT should deepen its involvement in the design phase to gain a more profound understanding of the industrial processes in furniture manufacturing, ultimately enabling the creation of truly eco-designed products. Last but not least, a more careful consideration of the fair distribution of the decarbonizing costs along the value chain should be undertaken.

Carbon footprint --- Furniture --- Eco-design --- Sustainability --- Master thesis --- Ingénierie, informatique & technologie > Science des matériaux & ingénierie