Figures on the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2010, which have been released this week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, show that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture remained relatively stable between 2009 and 2010. The results overall showed that the UK remains within its emissions targets, though there was a slight rise in the year to 2010.

The DECC figures show that agricultural emissions remained stable, at 9 per cent of the UK’s total emissions. Farming remains the main source of methane emissions, at 44 per cent of the total and nitrous oxide, at 80 per cent. Although emissions of nitrous oxide and methane have reduced by 20 per cent and 19 per cent respectively since 1990, the emissions of both were fractionally higher in 2010, showing 0.2 and 0.1 per cent increases.  

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Livestock industry body EBLEX has recently released the third part of its Down to Earth series of reports, which outlines four areas where farmers can reduce their carbon footprints and save money. However, experts including Defra chief scientist Professor Sir Bob Watson have claimed that the current economic model is broken and that only radical changes in agriculture and value systems, including factoring the impact on nature and populations into hitherto purely financial considerations, will ensure that the worst ravages of climate change are avoided.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this year, Professor Watson stated, “Make no mistake, business as usual will not work; the system is broken.”

The Committee on Climate Change, which advises the UK government on issues related to climate change and mitigating its effects, has made a number of suggestions on how the agricultural sector could reduce emissions. These include improving efficiency in fertiliser applications to minimise N₂O emissions, improving the efficiency of feeds, which would result in animals converting feed into meat rather than methane and increasing the use of anaerobic digestion to convert farm waste into energy.

The Committee estimated that there have been some developments in agriculture since 1990 which could reduce emissions, including efforts to improve efficiencies of fertilisers and livestock, and a reduction in the number of livestock kept in the UK, since Common Agricultural Subsidies were decoupled from production.

Although the UK remains ahead of targets, the plateau in figures does not bode well for its ambitious targets for reducing GHG emissions. Total greenhouse gas emissions for 2010 were over 3per cent higher than 2009. Under the UK’s domestic targets, laid out in the Climate Change Act 2008, greenhouse gas levels should be reduced by 80 per cent by 2050. The UK remains within these targets, according to the DECC.

Following a dip in 2009, emissions have increased from almost every sector. Although Agriculture reported only a minor increase, emissions from the residential sector and the energy supply sector increased by large amounts, rising 15 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. The housing sector alone released 11.8 MtCO₂e more in 2010 than the previous year, on a return to coal and gas power.

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