FABLE Selected for Schmidt Sciences’ New ADAPT-AFOLU Project
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy (FABLE) Consortium was selected as one of five international research projects to contribute to ADAPT-AFOLU, together receiving a combined $26 million over five years through Schmidt Sciences’ Decarbonization and Energy Virtual Institute (DEVI). The project aims to develop approaches that translate climate and energy transition modelling into actionable insights.
Led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), ADAPT-AFOLU brings together researchers from CIAT, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the University of Warwick and Rothamsted Research. The project focuses on Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), a sector that is central to both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing opportunities for carbon removal.
The project will initially be piloted in Ethiopia, India, and Brazil, with scope to expand the approach to 26 countries. By accounting for uncertainty in future climate, economic, and land-use conditions, the research aims to support decision-making that can remain effective as circumstances change. A key challenge is that there is no single pathway for reducing emissions from land use that will work in every situation. Decisions about agriculture and land use must account for changing climate conditions, food production, trade, livelihoods and other factors. ADAPT-AFOLU will therefore explore how different strategies perform across a range of possible futures, helping identify approaches that can remain useful as conditions change.
The SDSN and IIASA, from the FABLE Secretariat, are among the partner institutions working on the project, with Aline Mosnier, Scientific Director of the FABLE Consortium, serving on the project team. FABLE will contribute its expertise in food and land-use systems modelling, scenario development and the assessment of pathways towards sustainable land-use transitions.
The project builds on tools and approaches developed through the FABLE Consortium, including the FABLE Calculator and the Scenathon. The FABLE Calculator provides a foundation for exploring food and land-use pathways through to 2050, while the Scenathon connects national and global scenarios and enables the assessment of different possible pathways.
The project is part of Schmidt Sciences’ broader investment in research aimed at translating climate and energy models into practical approaches for climate action. Read the announcement here.