Greenhouse Gas emissions – livestock sectors must act now

The white paper’s finds that although the current tools and methodologies used to calculate GHG emissions are not perfect, improvement against an imperfect measure is still progress – which is urgently needed.

Michael Haverty is one of the White Paper’s authors. He commented: “Despite Covid, Brexit and the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change is fast-becoming the central issue facing UK, European and global agriculture; as the recent record temperatures attest.

“The challenge with GHG emissions is especially prevalent in grazing livestock.”

He added: “There are strong grounds for methane to be treated separately as a GHG. Even within methane, clear distinctions are needed between methane produced by livestock and that emitted from fossil fuels.

Co-author James Webster commented: “The former is recycled, if livestock populations and feeding methods remain largely the same over time.”

He continued: “The latter is new methane, which has a much more potent impact, especially as methane production from energy accounts for a similar share of global output as agricultural methane.”

The White Paper indicates that the farming industry needs to avoid fixating on the details of the calculation methods and focus more on making the changes necessary to reduce emissions. Society expects agriculture to play its part and the industry will be judged on improvements made.

According to the Andersons’ team, there is an urgent need for a robust, and globally agreed, framework to quantify GHG emissions and their impact on global warming. Whilst multiple tools and methodologies can co-exist, a globally-defined minimum set of standards is crucial.

Having a standardised way of calculating carbon accounts in the same way that financial accounts are standardised would be helpful.

The Andersons’ report also confirms that doing the right thing environmentally can also help farm businesses in terms of improving productivity. These ‘win-wins’ (e.g. reducing inorganic nitrogen fertiliser) need to be deployed widely and urgently. Yet, this will only get farming so far.

The White Paper concludes that to get to ‘Net Zero’ a step-change in practices will be needed, as will some financial incentives for farmers to reduce net GHG emissions, particularly by sequestering carbon.

Many farmers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude until there are clear commercial opportunities. Whilst many farmers want to do-the-right-thing, businesses need to be sustainable both environmentally and financially.

Due to its structure, agriculture is unlikely to be included in the new UK emissions trading scheme any time soon. Any income stream from carbon reduction is therefore likely to come through the offsetting market.

There are barriers to the development of a carbon (offsetting) market in farming. The key one is the issue of ‘permanence’ and whether the carbon reduction purchasers are buying will actually be taken out of the climate for the long term.

This is the reason markets are more developed in the forestry sector where woodland planting is a long-term commitment - and can be relatively easily verified.