EX-ACT | Environmental eXternalities ACcounting Tool

The Environmental eXternalities ACcounting Tool (EX-ACT) helps users estimate and track the impact of agrifood systems interventions on the environment, and especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity.

EX-ACT supports evidence-based decision-making by assessing agricultural commodities across the entire production, processing and distribution value chain.  The tool complements standard economic valuation by quantifying climate, biodiversity and broader environmental services outcomes of planned, ongoing and implemented interventions. This allows public and private stakeholders to access climate finance and steer investments towards higher sustainability.

The tool is primarily based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodologies (IPCC 206, 2014, 2019) and complemented by scientific literature. Users can also integrate country-specific data to increase accuracy using Tier 2 and 3 parameters. Starting from January 2026, the tool will be expanded beyond carbon accounting to evaluate how projects, policies, and investments affect ecosystems. Using the Mean Species Abundance (MSA) metric, EX-ACT assesses biodiversity under pressures including land use, infrastructure, habitat fragmentation, and human encroachment, and provides complementary indicators as area-equivalent biodiversity loss (MSA/ha) and the added or lost social value of biodiversity to connect ecological integrity with socio-economic value.

The EX-ACT online app makes evaluation of environmental externalities digital and more accessible. It allows users to work online, manage data efficiently, and collaborate across teams and institutions, simplified and flexible reporting and monitoring.