Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool

The World Resources Institute has released Version 1.0 of the Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool, a Microsoft Excel-based resource designed to help companies and entities calculate land occupation (LO) and carbon opportunity cost (COC) for agricultural products.

• The Carbon Opportunity Cost (COC) is defined as the total volume of carbon lost from soils and plants on land used for agriculture compared to what would be stored if the land remained as native vegetation. The tool addresses a gap in corporate adoption of this metric by providing an accessible way to automate calculations that were previously limited to academic literature.
• The Excel-based tool automates the calculation of land occupation (LO) and COC by integrating spatial and statistical data, including agricultural and native carbon stocks, crop yields, and livestock feed efficiency. It provides default factors for approximately 90 agricultural products across 5 countries and 10 regions, though users can input their own volume data (in kilograms) or refine estimates with their own carbon stock and yield data.
• An update released on June 5, 2026, removed global lookup values and calculation parameters for 'bioethanol from cereal straw' from the 'Raw LO and COC data' and 'Table A-13' tabs, as this product is not incorporated in the current version of the tool.

APA

World Resources Institute (2026). Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool. https://www.wri.org/research/carbon-opportunity-cost-calculation-tool

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool. 2026. https://www.wri.org/research/carbon-opportunity-cost-calculation-tool.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool |date=5 June 2026 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/carbon-opportunity-cost-calculation-tool |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2026carbon, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Carbon Opportunity Cost Calculation Tool}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/carbon-opportunity-cost-calculation-tool}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }