Green campaigner and 'sustainability advisor' Tony Juniper has called on the government to do more to roll out anaerobic digestion in the UK.

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Ahead of the annual conference by industry group ADBA, where he will be speaking, the former Friends of the Earth chief executive said,  "A range of cutting edge technologies offer the opportunity to achieve economic and job creation benefits while at the same time meeting environmental goals. Government really needs to wake up to this basic fact and to more proactively go after the great opportunities we have to hand, including anaerobic digestion."

Influential campaigner Juniper also said anaerobic digestion could offer a means of meeting sustainable energy goals and emissions reduction targets, as well as helping the industry transition towards greater sustainability. He added, "When integrated with farming businesses anaerobic digestion can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the overall carbon footprint of food production, including through sustainable soil and nutrient management, thus improving our ability to feed a growing population while reducing the need for commercial fertilisers."

He continued, "If anaerobic digestion reached its potential, the nutrients from food waste alone would be worth over £200m, and that's before you've taken into account the 'green' value of this low-carbon fertiliser. Anaerobic digestion is a closed loop technology, and is therefore a crucial cog in the mechanism of a sustainable society."

But, he said, this transition would require "a different policy environment," one in which the social and environmental aspects of sustainability are accounted for. Juniper said, "At present this industry is incentivised only in relation to what it delivers in terms of energy generation. While this is welcome it recognises only one aspect of the benefits the technology brings. More should be done to help realise the benefits it also delivers in supporting climate smart farming."