An annual report from the UN Environment Programme has identified agriculture as a key sector for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

UNEP released its annual emissions report earlier this week. In the report, scientists advising the environmental arm of the UN echoed the findings of the influential IPCC report from earlier in the summer. IPCC committee members said that, even by the most conservative estimates, immediate and wide-ranging actions are needed to reduce emissions and keep the global temperature rise below 2°C this century – the "least-cost" path, according to the UN, that will diminish the severity of the challenges humanity must face.

The 2^oC target was established at a UN summit in Cancun in 2010.

The Emissions Gap Report, released on Tuesday, was produced by 44 scientific groups in 17 countries. The experts measured the pledges made by national governments to cut emissions and compared them to actual reductions that scientists say are needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. They reported that, based on current estimates, greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be eight to 12 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent above safe levels by the end of the current decade. 

The scientists called for action to ensure global emissions do not exceed 44 gigatones CO2e by 2020, and then drop off progressively by around 5GtCO2e every five years after that. Total emissions in 2010, the last year for which figures are available, stood above 50 GtCO2e and emissions have increased constantly since that time. The report's authors noted that, "As this target was based on scenarios of action beginning in 2010… it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet this goal."

Even so, they said, closing the gap is possible. According to UNEP authors, "Adding up the reduction from the tightening of rules [governing national reduction pledges], implementing ambitious pledges, and expanding the scope of the current pledges could bring the global community about halfway to closing the gap… the remaining gap could be bridged by further international and national action, including through 'international cooperative initiatives'."

Key role of agriculture

According to the UNEP scientists, measures including better energy efficiency, increasing support for renewable energies and eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels could all play a major role in reducing emissions.

The 2013 report also pays particular attention to agriculture, where there is huge potential for tackling emissions (up to 4.3 GtCO2e, the scientists claim), though only a handful of countries have actually introduced pledges dealing specifically with the sector.

UNEP outlined a range of measures that not only contribute to climate-change mitigation, but enhance the sector's environmental sustainability and could provide other benefits such as higher yields, lower fertiliser costs or extra profits from wood supply.

Three practices recommended for wider implementation in the report include:

• No-till practices. Eliminating ploughing by direct seeding under the mulch layer of the previous season's crop aids carbon storage from reduced soil disturbance, reduces emissions from petrol-driven farm machinery and benefits soil health.
• Improving nutrient and water management. Innovative cropping practices, particularly in rice production, could reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
• Agroforestry. Management practices that deliberately include woody perennials on farms and the landscape increase the uptake and storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in biomass and soils, improving soil health, biodiversity in the agri-ecosystem and often providing a supplement to farm income once trees are more mature.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner commented on Tuesday, "As the report highlights, delayed actions means a higher rate of climate change in the near term and likely more near-term climate impacts, as well as the continued use of carbon-intensive and energy-intensive infrastructure. This 'lock-in' would slow down the introduction of climate-friendly technologies and narrow the developmental choices that would place the global community on the path to a sustainable, green future."

"However," He continued, "The stepping stone of the 2020 target can still be achieved by strengthening current pledges and by further action, including scaling up international cooperation initiatives in areas such as energy efficiency, fossil fuel subsidy reform and renewable energy. Even agriculture can contribute, as direct emissions from this sector are currently responsible for 11 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions-more if its indirect emissions are taken into account."

In the UK, where agriculture accounts for around 9 percent of emissions, government reports have warned that recent significant improvements seen in agricultural emissions may be limited by the inflexible nature of the country's food production system. Experts claim radical changes will be needed to climate proof UK agriculture and ensure continued reductions in emissions and pollution emanating from the sector.

In April, speaking in the House of Commons at the launch of a report by the Climate Change Committee on Ghg emissions and their effect on business, Tim Yeo MP, Chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change said, "Agriculture has escaped attention [until now]. Agriculture seems to get away with uniquely soft treatment and I don't think that will last much longer."

Last month, sustainable farming experts from the Centre for Agroecology and Food Security at Coventry University said fundamental changes to both the agriculture and research industries are needed to drive meaningful 'greening' of food production and more equitable distribution of healthy food in the UK.

They said science spending in the UK must be more socially just and directly involve "those on the receiving end" of the research.

Given the increasingly stark warnings of climate scientists and continued foot-dragging by governments and leading industries, some have said that yet more drastic measures are needed to avoid climate catastrophe.

Kevin Anderson, an influential climatologist and deputy director of the Tyndal Centre for Climate Research, has been progressively more critical of the lacklustre response to warnings from expert scientists. He argues that political hedging, against a background of growing consumption and pollution, have necessitated changes so radical that they will challenge the political and economic hegemonies of our age. An increasing number of climate scientists believe that unprecedented emissions reductions are now needed to avoid the worst effect of climate change.

In August, Professor Anderson wrote, "Perhaps at the time of the 1992 Earth Summit, or even at the turn of the millennium, 2°C levels of mitigation could have been achieved through significant evolutionary changes within the political and economic hegemony. But climate change is a cumulative issue! Now, in 2013, we in high-emitting (post-) industrial nations face a very different prospect. Our ongoing and collective carbon profligacy has squandered any opportunity for the 'evolutionary change' afforded by our earlier (and larger) 2°C carbon budget. Today, after two decades of bluff and lies, the remaining 2°C budget demands revolutionary change to the political and economic hegemony."

The UN Report's release comes a week before the next round of UN meetings in Warsaw, where the first stages of a new global climate agreement are to be negotiated. Delegates hope to sign new, stricter, climate agreements by 2015, though questions persist over whether the signatories will have the political will or courage to commit to such drastic reductions as scientists maintain are necessary.