Quoted from: https://www.sei.org/publications/leap-ibc/ 

The Integrated Benefits Calculator (IBC) is a new application of the LEAP system developed by SEI in collaboration with US EPA and Daven Henze at the University of Colorado and with the support of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). LEAP-IBC combines emissions scenarios from LEAP with output from a global atmospheric chemistry transport model and with various exposure-response functions. It then produces national-scale estimates of avoided premature deaths and crop losses. LEAP-IBC also estimates the climate benefits of addressing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), adopting air pollution reduction strategies and implementing greenhouse gas mitigation.

Quoted from: https://mediamanager.sei.org/documents/Publications/SEI-Factsheet-LEAP-IBC-2.pdf 

     LEAP is a widely-used software tool for energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment, developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute (www. energycommunity.org). It is an integrated, scenariobased modelling tool originally developed to track energy consumption, production and resource extraction in all sectors of an economy. It can account for both energy sector and non-energy sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emission sources and sinks.

      Now, LEAP can also analyse emissions patterns of local and regional air pollutants, and assess strategies to address short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), making it well-suited for studies on the climate co-benefits of local air pollution emissions reductions, and vice versa.

      The Integrated Benefits Calculator (IBC) is a new application of the LEAP system developed by SEI in collaboration with US EPA and Daven Henze at the University of Colorado and with the support of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). LEAP-IBC combines emissions scenarios from LEAP with output from a global atmospheric chemistry transport model and with various exposure-response functions. It then produces national-scale estimates of avoided premature deaths and crop losses; LEAP-IBC also estimates the climate benefits of addressing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), adopting air pollution reduction strategies and implementing greenhouse gas mitigation.

      LEAP has thousands of users in more than 190 countries. Its users include government agencies, academics, nongovernmental organizations, consulting companies, and energy utilities. It has been used at the city, state, national, regional and global scale. Twelve countries are currently using LEAP-IBC to support national planning for action on short-lived climate pollutants as part of the SNAP Initiative of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

Key features in LEAP-IBC

      1.A built-in structure for short-lived climate pollutant assessment: LEAP-IBC now includes a default architecture that covers all major source sectors of SLCPrelevant emissions. These source sectors include the major energy-consuming emission sources (e.g. residential, transport, industry) and energy transformation sectors (e.g. electricity generation), as well as non-energy emission sources (e.g. agriculture, waste). To calculate emissions from a source sector, the user must input a value for the activity and emission factor, or use the default emission factors. The default architecture can be changed to model a source sector in more or less detail.

      2.The Integrated Benefits Calculator (IBC): this calculates the benefits to human health, crop yield and climate from scenarios implementing particular emission reduction strategies. It does this by deriving the total national emissions of all relevant pollutants and GHGs from LEAP, and then using that total to estimate atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), relevant for human health, and surface ozone (O3), relevant for human health and vegetation. The calculator also uses the total national emissions to calculate the progression of global temperature in annual time-steps.

When and why you should use LEAP-IBC

With this tool, countries will be able to:

• characterize national emissions of greenhouse gases, short-lived climate pollutants and other air pollutants

• explore alternative emission reduction scenarios 

• calculate country-level health, agriculture and global climate benefits

• compare results across alternative scenarios

• inform nationally appropriate action on climate, air quality and SLCPs