Climate Action
Toolkit Project
The Climate Toolkit Project is a groundbreaking initiative designed to help producers take meaningful climate action. The project is funded by the ISEAL Innovation Grant and the Bonsucro Impact Fund (BIF) and developed with Better Cotton and other partners. It aims to build on Bonsucro’s climate action roadmap to date, to provide practical tools and processes to help both sugarcane and cotton producers to:
- Understand climate risks and their impact on production
- Measure and reduce their carbon footprint through science-based methods
- Adapt to a changing climate by implementing sustainable farming practices
- Meet sustainability standards set by Bonsucro and Better Cotton
Why this project?
Globally, agriculture accounts for up to 8.5% of GHG emissions, with a further 14.5% coming from land use change. Addressing these emissions is crucial to ensuring a sustainable future for agricultural production.
The Climate Action Toolkit project aims to support and unite stakeholders in understanding and mitigating climate risks while reducing their carbon footprint. It will enable knowledge-sharing among project partners and ensure that the tools and processes developed are practical, science-based and ultimately, widely adopted.
What we'll deliver
The project will deliver a fully integrated toolkit comprising:
Climate vulnerability assessment tool & guide
Helping producers understand climate risks and strengthen adaptation strategies, with a tailored approach for both sugarcane and cotton.
Climate mitigation target-setting tool & guide
Expanding the ClimateCane Tracker to include sugarcane transportation and processing phases.
Carbon removals accounting system
Embedding carbon removals within the Bonsucro Calculator to enhance emissions tracking.
GHG data transfer guide
Ensuring credible GHG data transfer across the sugarcane value chain.
Collaboration and learning
A key focus of the project is fostering collaboration and shared learning. We’re working closely with partners to exchange knowledge and insights, to ensure the tools we develop are robust, useful and adaptable.
- Learning partnership with Better Cotton – Bonsucro and Better Cotton will work closely throughout the project, with Better Cotton joining the Technical Advisory Committee and helping to align the toolkit with its existing climate initiatives.
- Testing and refining with implementing partners – The SA Cane Growers Association, Socicana, SW Sugar Mills Limited and Raízen will provide vital insights through trialling the tools in different farming contexts to ensure they’re practical and effective for both smallholder farmers and large commercial operations.
Why collaboration is essential
- Tackling climate change takes teamwork – climate action in farming isn’t simple. It takes collaboration across the supply chain, backed by solid science, to make real progress.
- Other commodities face the same challenges – many sustainability standards for different crops deal with similar climate issues. Sharing knowledge and aligning approaches will help drive bigger, more effective change.
- We need both adaptation and mitigation – to build a resilient future, we need to help producers both adapt to climate risks and cut emissions. By working together, we can support action across sugarcane, cotton and beyond.
Find out the latest updates about the progress of the project.
