China’s first cotton carbon footprint accounting platform, the ‘Cotton Carbon Footprint Calculation v1.0’ WeChat mini-program, was officially launched on May 31, 2026.
The platform was jointly developed by the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Western Agricultural Research Center.
Due to the ‘cotton carbon accounting + AI big model’ technical approach, the platform can provide one-click intelligent calculation of carbon emissions throughout the entire cotton production process.
Users only need to input basic information such as planting area, irrigation method, fertilizer and pesticide input, agricultural machinery operation, and straw utilization to quickly obtain results for cotton production carbon emissions, carbon sinks, and net carbon footprint.
The mini-program integrates a database of emission factors from key cotton planting processes and connects to a large AI model, enabling quantitative analysis of carbon emissions from inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural films, electricity, and diesel.
Based on different regional production models, it provides targeted assessments of cotton field emission reduction potential and low-carbon production suggestions, offering technical support to cotton farmers, researchers, and cotton-related enterprises.
It features data visualization, historical record querying, and report export functions, solving the problems of complex data collection and high professional barriers associated with traditional accounting methods.
The cotton production process involves multiple carbon emission stages, including agricultural inputs and mechanized operations, making traditional accounting methods insufficient to meet the needs of grassroots levels.
The launch of this platform provides a digital solution for evaluating low-carbon cotton production, optimizing emission reduction technologies, and managing carbon emissions in my country, representing an important exploration in promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of the cotton industry.
The research team stated that they will continue to improve the dynamic monitoring function and expand the accounting scope to the entire cotton and textile product industry chain, facilitating carbon label production and certification.
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