The movement of Nitrogen in the soil gives rise to Nitrous Oxide (N2O) emissions. There has been an increase in nitrous oxide emissions from 5.6 Tg Nitrogen per year in the 1980s to 7.3 Tg Nitrogen per year between 2013-16, of which agriculture was responsible for 87% of this direct rise. Nitrous oxide arises from soils primarily via the two biological pathways of nitrification and denitrification, as displayed below.
Nitrous oxide emissions from the soil result from biological and chemical processes carried out by microbes that use inorganic nitrogen compounds (ammonium, nitrite and nitrate). The processes that release nitrous oxide include microbial nitrification in aerobic soils, denitrification of nitrate in anaerobic soils. Denitrification can result in the release of nitrogen gas (N2) as well as N2O and as these are biological processes the rate at which this occurs is dependent on a number of factors.
A significant factor in the production of N2O is the availability of nitrate (NO3) for the denitrifying bacteria to reduce. Plants take up N from the soil as ammonium, nitrites or nitrates, with the majority as nitrate. NO3 is mineralised from the soil organic matter and is also added to soil as ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Some of the NO2 will be rapidly taken up by plant growth, some will be immobilised into the SOM, some may be leached out of the soil and some is likely to be denitrified. If there is too much NO3 for the plants to take up it is liable to denitrification and leaching.
Why is it important?
Emissions from UK soils as N2O are less significant than CO2, despite N2O being 265 times more powerful a GHG than CO2.
N2O emissions can be seen as a tiny but significant part of soil make-up, due to its huge carbon equivalent, as well as being essential for biological processes that enable soil microbes to flourish.
The soil nitrogen is present either as inorganic nitrogen (available for plant uptake) or organically bound nitrogen in the soil organic matter. In general over 90% of all soil nitrogen is in organically bound in the SOM. The majority is in the ‘active’ and ‘stable’ pools, and is mineralised into inorganic nitrogen and made available for plant uptake, or loss from the soil, by the action of soil micro-organisms oxidising the SOM.
Minimising Emissions
The vast majority of denitrifying bacteria require relatively anaerobic conditions. Soils need to have a field capacity of over 60% for dentification to occur and so improving soil structure and adequate drainage can be significant factors in reducing N2O emissions. This can be done by adopting methods such as reduced tillage as well as introducing legume crops in to the rotation which will provide more nitrogen in the form of organic matter which will be released more slowly and used effectively by growing plants (Government of Western Australia, 2018).
Temperature, available carbon and pH are also important variables – the dentrifying bacteria will be most active in warmer soil conditions with higher SOM (and available soil carbon and energy) and with a pH of 7.0 – 8.0.
See how soil fits into the methane profile of agricultural emissions
Methane cycle
Methane (CH4) is not a significant GHG for UK agricultural soils, where the UK is more of a sink due to the action of soil bacteria converting the methane into more complex soil carbohydrates. Deciduous woodland with a relatively high pH soils has been shown to have the highest rates of methane uptake in the UK along with wetland areas. The influence of different plant species on this uptake of methane in wetland areas can be read here. Overall, it was found that where soil organic carbon measurements where high, methane emissions were low. Therefore suggesting that plant species and their density can influence methane emission from wetlands, and should be considered when developing climate change mitigation policies and plans.
Soils which have had regular fertilizer additions or have high ammonium content have been shown to have much smaller populations of methanotrophic bacteria (those bacterial populations that remove methane) and are therefore not very effective methane sinks; while soils which have organic manures added to them have been shown to have higher than average populations of methanotrophic bacterial populations.
Unlike any other industry except forestry, farming has the potential to sequester (absorb) carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere on a large scale. Plants and soils on farms have the potential to sequester vast amounts of carbon, giving farming the potential to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change.
Much of the biomass that commonly occurs on UK farms such as hedges, woodland and permanent pasture is already sequestering carbon at very significant levels. But with some careful management decisions this can be improved to maximise the rate at which carbon sequestration occurs. Furthermore, more biomass usually equates to better habitat for wildlife, particularly insects and birds.
Soil is the farmers’ most important asset in so many ways. A soil that is continually gaining in organic matter, which is certainly possible, is a rich, healthy and resilient soil. Increases in organic matter lead to increased soil fertility, improved structure, healthier crops and carbon sequestration.
How does it work?
When plants photosynthesise they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). This CO2 is turned in to sugars and then more stable compounds. In woody plants like trees this becomes lignin (wood), and suddenly the CO2 that was once in the atmosphere has become a very stable form of elemental carbon.
Some of the plant’s carbon compounds are also exudated (transferred) into the soil via the roots. Here the carbon compounds become organic matter and build soil organic matter, another very stable form of carbon.
Soils contain organic matter that is created from organic matter from animals, insects, plants and fungi. This organic matter is then decomposed by the vast array of micro-organisms in the soil ecosystem. About half of all organic matter is carbon, and in this form the carbon is very stable and can only turn back to CO2 readily if significant oxidation occurs, such as cultivation.
Eventually soil organic matter turns in to the even more stable form of humus, a highly complex, fertile and stable substance that should be prized by every farmer.
Improving soils by building soil organic matter is a win, win situation for everyone.
Good soil management is central to sustainable farming everywhere. Healthy soils are any nation’s greatest asset and, if well managed, can go on producing food, fibre and fuel for generation after generation. However much UK farmland is badly degraded, following farming practices that have not looked after the soil, effectively raiding the ‘soil capital bank’.
Fortunately soils have an extraordinary capacity to regenerate quickly and become productive and stable again.
Healthy soils have numerous benefits for the farmer and society:
Stable and resilient
Resistant to erosion due to stable and improved soil structure. This leads to improved water quality in groundwater and surface waters, and ultimately to increased food security and decreased negative impacts to ecosystems.
Easily workable in cultivated systems
Good habitat for soil micro-organisms
Fertile and good structure
Large carbon sinks
Basic Principles to Create Healthy Soils:
Cultivation can reduce soil structure and oxidise carbon, which is then released to the atmosphere. Minimising cultivation frequency and depth alongside ensuring the soil is not too wet when cultivated can reduce the damage arising from incorrect management.
Perennial crops (including grasses) are good for soil because they encourage organic matter formation:
Diverse cropping systems (cultivated and grassland) introduce vegetative variety into soils which stimulates soil biology
Evaluate machinery operations: minimise depth, frequency and proportion of soil inverted if avoidable
Build soil organic matter as much and as frequently as possible!
The Importance of Soil Organic Matter
Healthy soils support a large and diverse microbial community, the interactions between species and niches increases soil functionality to decompose residues and stabilise organic matter. Previously degraded soils that become more sympathetically managed will tend to increase in soil organic matter content at the fastest rates, however, all soils can continue to build organic matter as the depth of high carbon content in the soil increases.
Building soil organic matter is a holy grail for the farmer or grower and is also a win, win situation:
Healthy soils produce healthy crops
Crops growing in healthy soils give higher yields and higher profits
Soils high in organic matter are resilient, stable and have good structure
Carbon sequestration rates can be huge
Work completed by the FCT has demonstrated that every hectare of land that raises its soil organic matter levels by just 0.1% (e.g. 4.2% to 4.3%) can sequester approximately 8.9 tonnes of CO2e per year (at 1.4 g/cm3 bulk density). This is an extraordinary figure; in practice that is not only possible but being exceeded by farmers and growers building healthy soils.
All farms have biomass that is already sequestering carbon. Managing these assets well through increasing further the quality and quantity of permanent biomass increases the potential to sequester carbon and create more wildlife habitat.
Hedges
Britain’s landscape is full of hedges, which can take many different forms, ages and species composition. Generally, the higher and wider the hedge the more carbon will be sequestered. Traditional methods of laying created hedges, in rotation, that grew vigorously, were stock-proof and absorbed a lot of carbon. This can be replicated to an extent by well-planned mechanical management and consideration of the frequency of fresh growth.
Woodland
Trees have an astonishing capacity to absorb carbon across their lifetime. However, the peak period for sequestration is in a tree’s teenage years! Depending on the species this ranges from years 10 to 45 after planting, where sequestration rates are in excess of 12 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year.
If your farm has a policy of continual tree planting you will ensure that there are always trees in the age-classes that maximise sequestration. Of course it also means you will always have a ready supply of timber!
Orchards
Traditional orchards are Britain’s ancient form of agroforestry, with ancient trees providing fruit and wildlife habitat, whilst underneath the trees permanent pasture provides grazing for livestock. Carbon is absorbed in the wood of the trees and the grassland builds organic matter in the soil.
Modern bush orchards may not have the capacity for livestock grazing, but if well managed can still provide significant carbon benefits as well as high fruit and/or nut yields. It’s their perennial nature which makes orchards so important in carbon terms. Orchards, whether bush or traditional, are important carbon sinks that, unlike woodland and hedges, also provide food for humans.
Field margins
Any grassland that is not cultivated is an important carbon asset, for organic matter can build and is not lost when cultivated. All fields have margins that are carbon sinks. Whilst there is always a trade-off between margin area and annual crops in a cultivated field, it’s worth considering that margins have greater value than just being able to turn a tractor around on.
There are many novel ways to integrate perennial crops with annual crops, such as agroforestry. Forest gardens are a way of essentially creating woodland that is entirely edible and useful to humans as well as wildlife.
Coppice woodland offers potential for huge sequestration rates, meaning less land has to be given over to trees for the same carbon benefit. Coppice typically has a range of useful wood products following cutting, such as stakes, poles, weaving material and fuel. Any perennial crops are worth considering for carbon and other benefits, whether for biofuel like Miscanthus or even soft fruit like blackcurrants.
Climate change is acknowledged by the world’s leading scientists as a real and critical threat. It is now considered unequivocal that human influence has already warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Global surface temperatures are expected to continue increasing until at least the mid-century – and without a deep reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), we face a world which will be radically altered in the coming decades.
What is Climate Change?
Climate change has been defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer (IPCC report 2021). This is recognised as a critical problem with global implications by the world’s leading scientists.
For millions of years the Earth’s climate has changed gradually over time, but in a relatively short space of time – only a few hundred years – the effect of human activity has dramatically increased this rate of change.
Why the Climate is Changing?
Scientists have known for over 100 years that adding more carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere causes a warming of the Earth’s surface. But now that the effects are starting to be felt public demand is growing to reduce our CO2 emissions, along with other GHGs.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the Earth’s atmosphere could be viewed as a closed system: natural processes would add and remove carbon dioxide to and from the atmosphere in a balanced cycle that has been maintained for millions of years. But since then, various human activities have tipped this natural balance out of sync’ by adding more carbon dioxide than can be safely absorbed by the natural processes.
The extra GHGs, including CO2, Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), cause the Earth to warm, in what is known as the ‘greenhouse effect’. These gases act like a greenhouse because they reflect bands of the Sun’s radiation back towards the Earth’s surface that would otherwise radiate straight back out, therefore warming the Earth’s surface.
The greenhouse effect: greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere (Wikimedia)
Data from Hawaii (below) illustrates how concentrations of CO2 have risen since World War II as economic activity has rapidly expanded across the globe. No natural processes or effects have been found that can explain such a rapid rise in CO2 concentrations.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 1960 – 2010, showing upward trend (NOAA)
How much is the climate changing?
Each of the last four decades has been successively warmer than any decade that preceded it since 1850 (IPPC, 2021: A.1.2.). According to the IPPC 2021 assessment, the global surface temperature was 1.1°C higher in 2011–2020 than in 1850–1900, with larger increases over land (1.59°C) than over the ocean (0.88°C). The majority of these increases are considered to be driven by human activity.
The IPCC suggests that global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. This pace of change in temperature is unmatched in history. And so worrying is this temperature jump, it has led scientists to warn of potentially irreversible changes in our climate if allowed to continue.
Positive feedback loops
As the Earth warms, processes are triggered on the surface and in the atmosphere called climate feedbacks. “Positive” feedbacks will strengthen the warming, while “negative” ones will weaken it. Examples of feedback loops include:
Climate change means more extreme weather events, such as forest fires, which in themselves generate further GHG emissions.
Warmer temperatures may cause permafrost soils across the Arctic to thaw, with the potential to release their vast stores of organic carbon, thus further propagating climate change.
As temperatures rise, more water evaporates from the Earth’s surface and is present in the atmosphere. Higher concentrations in the atmosphere have a warming effect, creating a positive feedback.
As temperatures rise, there is less sea ice and snow cover. Ice and snow reflect a large portion of the Sun’s energy that hits the Earth’s surface. Therefore as they melt away, a darker surface of ocean or soil is left behind, which reflects less energy, causing the surface to warm further. Declining sea ice is causing the Arctic to warm twice as quickly as the global average.
These positive feedback loops create a vicious cycle, known as ‘runaway’ climate change. Scientists generally agree that to avoid ‘runaway’ climate change we need to restrict temperature rise to 1.5°C or 2°C by 2100.
How will it affect UK Farmers?
Climate change is about more than global warming. As well as rising temperatures putting stress on farmland across the world, greater extremes of both hot and cold temperatures are expected. Climate change will also bring altered rainfall patterns, raised sea levels, increased risks of flooding, droughts, more acidic oceans, more storms and other unexpected weather events. Such changes could have huge consequences for farmers, growers and all those reliant on the land for an income.
If nothing is done the UK is forecast to have shorter, wetter winters, less rainfall in the summer and more stormy and unusual weather events. This will test farmers and growers and require new ways of growing crops and livestock. You can read more about the expected localised changes in climate in the UK here.
Warmer and milder weather will allow new pests to establish themselves in the UK and change the flowering dates of flowers and plants. Loss of biodiversity and native species will have knock-on ecological effects for farmers and damaging invasive species are expected to multiply.
Source: Wikimedia
What Can be Done?
A major review into whether it makes economic sense to fight climate change concluded that allowing climate change to continue unabated would result in costs equivalent to 2% of the world’s GDP. Conversely, taking immediate action to combat the worst outcomes of climate change would cost only 0.5% of GDP. This review has led to the development of the target for the UK to reach net zero by 2050, through the creation of new laws there is now a legal requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach this goal.
The good news is that steps can be taken to fight climate change. The most important is reducing and stopping altogether the emission of CO2 and other GHGs into the atmosphere. The 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement led to the creation of an international, legally binding, policy to limit global warming to less than 2oC; signed by 195 countries this commitment demonstrates the political willing and consciousness to secure the future stability of our global environment.
Farmers and growers can have a big impact by reducing their emissions, and even help absorb emissions from the atmosphere. Our toolkit explores how farmers and growers can reduce emissions and help combat climate change, benefitting at the same time from lower costs and new business opportunities. Conversely, taking immediate action to combat the worst outcomes of climate change. See the ‘Taking action’ section for more information on how to get involved.
Climate Reality Check: a resource designed for climate practitioners, advocates, journalists, business leaders and policymakers to better understand and address the mismatch between the current climate risks and inadequate levels of climate action.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the source of climate change. These gases, the most important of which are carbon dioxide and methane, form a ‘blanket’ around the planet when they are released into the atmosphere (known as the ‘greenhouse effect’), trapping heat and warming the Earth.
Introduction
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are responsible for the greenhouse effect, which warms the Earth’s surface leading to climate change. Research shows that emissions equivalent to those from over 50 average households are produced from a 100 hectare cereal farm every year. The emissions are even higher for dairy farms.
Although these gases are released naturally, it is the additional output from human sources (for example: power generation, transport and agriculture) that tips the natural balance over the edge and creates a warming effect. This effect is not new to science and was discovered as long ago as the nineteenth century. Taking action to reduce emissions of GHGs is essential to prevent climate change – much can be done by farmers to help reduce them.
Agriculture produces three main types of gases which are dangerous to the climate: nitrous oxide (agriculture is the largest global source of this gas), methane, and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common GHG globally, and therefore provides the ‘benchmark’ for measuring other GHGs’ damage (CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent).
In terms of agriculture, methane and nitrous oxide are produced in greater quantities than carbon dioxide and have a higher carbon dioxide equivalent, therefore they are the most significant gases associated with farming.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is 265 times more harmful than carbon dioxide, so reducing output of this gas is particularly important.
Methane (CH4) is another very powerful greenhouse gas, and is 27 times more damaging than carbon dioxide (source), although it spends less time in the atmosphere, estimated to be on average 12 years after which most of it is broken down.
CO2 is less damaging than N2O and CH4 but remains in the atmosphere for around 100 years. For this reason, any emissions today will continue to affect future generations; this is why we are already ‘locked in’ to a certain amount of global temperature rise.
Consequently there has been a discussion raised as to the methodology of accounting for the true contribution of methane and thus the proposal of the GWP* approach. This approach (global warming potential star) allows comparison of the global warming impacts of different gases. It is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given time, relative to the emissions of CO2. The star accounts for differences in short (e.g. methane) and long (e.g. carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) lived climate pollutants.
Sources of agricultural greenhouse gases
The majority of agricultural GHG emissions come from the following sources:
Livestock rearing and natural processes
Crop fertilisation using chemical fertilisers
Materials used to build and maintain farms
Energy use of the farm buildings and vehicles
Transport and distribution during and after growing
Soil based emissions from disturbing soils
Waste produced as a result of farming processes
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Nitrous oxide comes largely from manure and fertiliser use. For example, highly managed grassland produces large volumes of emissions due to fertiliser use and soil disturbance.
Nitrous oxide is produced naturally in soils through microbial processes, but the increase in fertiliser use for intensive arable crops dramatically increases emissions.
The amount of N2O emitted when applying fertiliser or manure to crops will vary depending on weather conditions, quantity applied, soil moisture, soil structure and method of application.
Methane (CH4)
Methane is produced by livestock, via ‘ruminant enteric fermentation’; the gas is released as a result of bacteria in the stomachs of cows and sheep and the natural processes that release these.
Methane emissions from livestock vary - beef cattle account for around three quarters of such emissions, while dairy cattle account for around one-fifth, primarily due to different feeding regimes. Numbers of livestock a farm has and the feed they eat will determine the levels of emissions.
Methane is also produced from manure, but emissions differ depending on management techniques – for example, handling lagoon or tank based manure creates the largest methane emissions as the substance decays without oxygen. Daily spreading of manure generates the lowest, as oxygen is added during the process.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
A host of everyday and farming related activities emit carbon dioxide, such as driving around the farm, product distribution, and energy use. The main sources are burning diesel and petrol when transporting products or travelling to and from your farm, and the conventional energy (oil, gas, coal) used to power lights, and for cooling and heating.
Land use change is one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions worldwide. For example draining peat soils, converting woodland to intensively farmed fields and removing natural habitats. Disturbing soil also releases CO2 via regular tilling and soil compaction from heavy machinery. Adopting ‘minimum tillage’ and ‘no-tillage’ techniques prevent soil disturbance and drastically reduce such emissions while improving soil quality and structure. This will be covered in more detail in the ‘Your Farm’ section of the toolkit.
Farming's Potential to Absorb Greenhouse Gases
Farming has a unique part to play in absorbing (or ‘sequestering’) carbon emissions, and is unique as an industry in being able to offer these opportunities.
For example, carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere by soils, by plant and crop growing cycles and by woodland. This can help ‘balance’ the cycle of GHGs in the atmosphere and help prevent climate change.
Farm based emissions and carbon uptake (Scottish Government, 2010)
Therefore, it's extremely important that farmers do what they can to help lower Britain's carbon footprint.
Ways for farms to absorb greenhouse gases are covered in more detail in later sections of the Toolkit.
There are international, regional and national targets on reducing GHG emissions and combating climate change. In July 2019, the UK Government amended the legally binding target to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 to a new, much tougher goal. The aim is to have ‘net zero’ GHGs by 2050, meaning emissions from agriculture as well as homes, transport, and industry will have to be avoided completely or – in the most difficult examples – offset by planting trees or sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere. These targets affect everyone in the country and Defra has responsibility for a proportion of the overall reduction that must be met from agricultural processes.
UK Government and Industry Working Group Policy
The Committee on Climate Change advised the UK Government (July 2019 Progress Report) to set emission reductions to net zero by 2050 (instead of the previous 80% reduction). Emission reductions are expected from across all sectors of the economy, including agriculture and forestry. So far in the UK we have seen an overall decrease in emissions released, whilst the average UK Gross Domestic Product increases (graph below) – sounds like good news! However, agricultural emissions increased by 1% from 2016 to 2017 and account for 9% of all UK emissions. Emissions from agriculture were 16% below 1990 levels, but there has beenno progress in reducing emissions from agriculture since 2008. Methane accounted for 56% of emissions from agriculture in 2017, and almost half (47%) of total agriculture emissions were from the digestive process of livestock. Emissions from managing agricultural soils, largely resulting from nitrogen fertiliser use, accounted for 25% of the sector’s emissions, with the remainder from waste management and on-farm energy use.
Source: BEIS (2019) 2018 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Provisional Figures; BEIS (2019) 2017 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Final Figures; ONS (2019) Gross Domestic Product: chained volume measures: Seasonally adjusted £m; CCC calculations (Committee on Climate Change, 2019).
An industry-led initiative for delivering reductions in emissions from agriculture in England. The action plan brings together key representative organisations from across the agricultural industry to support collective action. The GHGAP shows the agricultural industry’s commitment to playing its part in tackling climate change, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by three million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year from 2018-22. The GHGAP is one of a range of initiatives that is already helping farming to produce more while impacting less.
Part of the Action Plan is to: Meet the climate change challenge without compromising domestic production. It is too simple a solution to produce less and import more. This simply ‘exports’ our emissions to other parts of the world. This action plan focuses on how farmers, across all sectors and farming systems, can become more efficient to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make cost savings per unit of production .Agriculture can also make a big contribution to mitigating climate change by storing carbon in soils and vegetation and by generating renewable energy. The Greenhouse Gas Action Plan sets out to show that farming is part of the solution.
This review critically analyses the performance of the GHGAP during the period 2012 through to end of 2016. It is estimated that a 1Mt CO2 equivalent reduction has been achieved as of 2016. The estimate of progress is modelled by looking at the impacts of current uptake of relevant mitigation measures that are covered by the GHGAP. Rates of uptake are mainly taken from the Farm Practices Survey (FPS) which covers a range of mitigation methods, including those relating to organic fertiliser management and application. The GHGAP promotes a wide range of measures not all of which are covered by the FPS, for example some activities around management skills and advice.
Strengths and weaknesses – the agricultural industry should lead but improvements in reporting successes and accountability are required. Government’s preferred approach is to continue with the voluntary GHGAP, with industry taking the lead and the government providing support where appropriate, for example helping to identify the most effective mitigation methods. However, voluntary measures and policies are not really meeting the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and there is a chance that more firm legislation will be required. The GHGAP should include measurable objectives linked to specific mitigation activities and a process for reporting their progress and data shared safely when appropriate between activities and outcomes. The outcome of the referendum to exit the EU provides an opportunity to develop a new vision for British food and farming and our relationship to the natural environment. Improving resource efficiency, including reducing GHG emissions, will be an important part of the thinking that underpins the new vision of the future. The long term plans outlined have been outlined by DEFRA on how to achieve these goals in Food, Farming and the Environmental sectors.
Associated Government Policies
The UK government has a range of measures in place to mitigate climate change, many of which can be utilised by farmers, these include:
Landfill tax increases; increased gate fees provide an incentive to reduce, reuse and recycle waste wherever possible, while it may also make anaerobic digesters financially feasible.
Sustainable planning policy; the planning regulations now create requirements for high standards of insulation and other sustainable features in new buildings and conversions.
There are government policies to encourage sustainable soil management and woodland creation which help sequester carbon emissions.
The new environmental bill ensures there will be continued action to cut greenhouse gas emissions including from land use, land use change and agriculture. This includes measures to improve management of fertiliser, manure and slurry to reduce emissions such as ammonia.
The importance of soil management has been also highlighted in the environmental bill; using resources from nature more sustainably and efficiently by improving our soil management approach. The target is to have all of England’s soils managed sustainably by 2030, using natural capital thinking to develop soil metrics and management approaches
Industry Working Group Activities
The Greenhouse Gas Action Plan was developed in collaboration with the major agricultural industry bodies, however groups such as the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) have also developed ‘product roadmaps’ for their supply chains, outlining how individual sectors, such as livestock production, can reduce their emissions.
The Beef and Sheep meat roadmaps can be downloaded here. This final report (2012) looks at the environmental challenges facing the industry and develops practical ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the sector. The direct emissions from livestock are analysed in conjunction with water use, economic returns, landscape and biodiversity value and waste in the supply chain.
The latest Arable farming roadmap can be downloaded here. This Roadmap is a plan of action for AHDB to assist the UK cereals and oilseeds industry to meet its GHG emissions reduction goals and environmental improvement targets. AHDB provides relevant information and tools to assist in the uptake of environmentally sustainable practices, while, at the same time, supporting a profitable UK cereals and oilseeds sector.
The 2018 UK dairy industry roadmap can be viewed here. This report brings together participants from the entire dairy supply chain including farmers, dairy manufacturers, and industry partners. Together, the British dairy industry has made a commitment to set targets and produce regular reports on the progress it is making to reduce its environmental footprint.
The BPEX 2014 pig meat industry roadmap can be found here. In this report it was established that pig producers in this country can and will deliver further reductions in environmental impact, despite the fact that targets have already been exceeded or look likely to be exceeded by 2020.
EU Policy
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU’s farming and rural development funding framework, encompasses many elements that affect climate change and how farmers respond to the challenge.
Under the CAP there are two pillars, one for direct payment support and cross compliance (Pillar 1) and the second for rural development (Pillar 2). The Pillar 1 developments were designed not to incentivise over production but to ensure farmers had met certain environmental management, animal welfare and traceability standards, known as cross compliance. Pillar 2 was designed to encourage sustainable management of natural resources, promote development in rural communities and combat climate change. Rural development funding supports agri-environmental schemes. As CAP developed there was greater acknowledgment of climate change and wider sustainability issues making it a more integral part of farming.
Rural development funding will seek to support agri-environment projects such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, possibly creating new opportunities. However, since deciding to leave the European Union, CAP will be phased out and a new system of payments will be created, this will be known as Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS). ELMS has been founded on the principle of ‘public money for public goods’, providing a means of achieving the goals set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan and commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. Information on the 25 Year Plan can be found here.
Follow this link for a summary of climate change adaptation and its affects at the EU scale.
Follow this link for a detailed working paper on the agriculture’s mitigation potential at the EU scale.
Related Policy Drivers from the EU
The Renewables Directive, which required the UK to produce 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, therefore creating opportunities in biomass, wind, solar and other renewables.
The Water Framework Directive, which requires much greater consideration of water as a resource, enhanced conservation measures and limits on extraction.Water quantity and quality is now addressed in the 25 Year Environment Plan, directly mentioning meeting or exceeding the measures in the River Basin Management Plans for England.
Renewable Fuels targets – targets have been set for the replacement of transport fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy such as biofuels. Each member state must meet a progressively increasing proportion of its transport fuel from renewable sources, which creates a market for these fuels.
The UN COP21 agreement aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions around the world to keep global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5oC. This agreement requires each country to report regularly on their efforts and implementation efforts. It is encouraged that through the agreement, countries will conserve and enhance their sinks and reservoirs of GHGs.
As well as the context of environmental change which will impact farmland and growing regions, there are economic, societal and social reasons to take action. Reducing input use, generating renewable energy and increasing resource efficiency all save or make money, helping farming businesses run more profitably and smoothly. As the food producers and retailers are pressured from regulations above and consumer demand below, supply chains will be increasingly scrutinised for their GHG emissions so taking action now could put you at a competitive advantage in the near future.
Introduction
The world is changing at an unprecedented rate, and this is as true for agriculture as any other sector, if not more so. As agricultural producers and businesses we face pressure to change from government and regulatory bodies, but also from our producer customers and, ultimately, their end consumers.
In a resource constrained world, we are crucially positioned to contribute to saving resources and producing more, more sustainably. However this is exacerbated by the enormous challenges and threats posed to the sector from a world faced with fewer resources and greater competition for them. World population is forecast to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and this will put huge strain on the globe’s natural resources, creating water shortages and greater competition for minerals and natural wealth.
Market Drivers
The food industry is becoming increasingly focussed on sustainability and the ‘carbon footprinting’ of foodstuffs is emerging as a big issue. Producers and retailers such as Unilever, Marks & Spencer, Sainsburys and other big players have tough sustainability policies in place and are introducing carbon footprinting.
This means suppliers must meet environmental standards and monitor and reduce their carbon emissions to have any chance of supplying key large scale customers.
Around half of the UK retail sector, and three of the four major supermarket chains have ambitious carbon reduction targets. As the big players adopt such standards these are likely to spread through the industry, and impact almost every farmer, so those businesses taking action now will benefit from a head start.
Quite simply, to supply one of these big companies in the future, we will need to change as farmers and take steps to ensure we are in line with their policies by operating more sustainably and measuring our impact.
Acting now will also preempt government regulations forcing us as farmers and growers to reduce emissions. Doing so now gives us the flexibility to reduce emissions in ways most suited to our operations rather than having these imposed upon us.
Public Perceptions
The general public are becoming increasingly important and involved in the challenge of adapting to and mitigating climate change. It’s not just the forward thinking companies who need to make more sustainable choices. However, willingness is required from UK (and global) communities in order to be able to support and engage with climate change mitigation and adaptation schemes.
More recently there has been increased interest from the general public on where their food comes from, with consumers becoming more aware of the environmental impact of some food through either production or travel. The market for environmentally sustainable locally produced food is growing allowing farmers to take advantage of the new market opportunities.
As farmers we can help combat climate change in several ways, however, little action is being taken among the farming community at the moment. This may be due to the lack of information, support and regional guidance by authorities and industry, as well as the lack of financial incentives, alongside environmental obligations (Global Sustainability Institute, 2012). More forceful, legislated climate change and environmental action would see changes among the agricultural community. However, currently there are plenty of voluntary schemes which have been taken up by those willing to make a change to their current farming systems, as seen in the policies and targets section of the toolkit.
Summary
The market, resource and population pressures faced globally are the pressures faced by us as farmers and growers on our own farms and businesses and will directly impact everyone involved in agriculture. Taking action now is the best way to deal with these issues – the ‘Your Farm‘ section of the toolkit shows you how.
Future changes to the global community will massively affect food demand and availability, understanding the context of population dynamics enables projections for ongoing food security.
Population Growth and Change
The world is facing explosive population growth – currently at 7.6 billion people, this is expected to expand to 9.8 billion by 2050. By contrast, at the height of the Roman Empire there were around 150 million people globally, and in 1960 there were only 3 billion people worldwide.
UN Population Growth and Projections 1950-2100, sourced from UN DESA
Such population growth will make ever greater demands on agriculture and require greater yields and production, from less available land. However, this is not just an international problem affecting Asia and Africa, the UK is already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, second only to the Netherlands in Europe, and so land available for food production will come under ever greater strain, requiring new methods and greater care of existing land.
Accompanying this population growth will be changes in the age and make-up of the population demographics. Such changes will mean more older, less active people and fewer people of productive working age to produce income and products to support them. This will again mean producing food with less labour availability and the accompanying shift from family units to more people living alone, further putting pressure on resources as more land is required for people to live on.
Food Security
The challenges posed by the impact of climate change on natural resource depletion, water scarcity and huge global population growth threaten farming as we practice it today. Combined they will put huge strain on food supplies and mean that countries previously able to export food may no longer be in a position to do so, and that existing food supplies will face greater demand and consequently higher prices and possible shortages.
Pressure on land surrounding the River Nile, sourced from Wikimedia
In 2008 the UK imported 45% of all its food and this has been a growing trend for decades. Substituting such a large amount of imports for food grown in this country will be a huge challenge and one which every farmer will face pressures to respond to. Read more about this in the National Food Statistics Report on UK food security.
This may create opportunities for UK farmers but will add pressure to diversify crops and livestock as the country will have to become ever more self-sufficient.
Evidence also suggests that we will soon experience the peak of global phosphorous supplies, which, with nitrogen, is crucial for plant growth and found in all chemical fertilisers. The artificial Nitrogen found in most fertilisers (via the Harber-Bosch process) is also a result of processes powered by oil and gas, therefore chemical fertilisers as we know them will be restricted in supply in the future. This represents a considerable challenge to existing agricultural techniques as approximately 94 kg/ha of nitrogen as fertiliser is used each year within the UK.
Not only will there be more people eating more food, but there will be more people eating a Western diet, therefore more competition for meat, dairy and vegetable oil based foodstuffs. Growing these foodstuffs releases more harmful emissions than are released growing other products, for example the production of meat creates 4 to 12 times the emissions produced by growing cereals in the EU. This report has more information on the carbon emissions associated with different foods. The carbon footprint of UK dairy farms has been outlined by a Dairy Co report, available here.
Research suggests that doubling the food supply using current farming practices would still not be enough to feed the extra population in 2050. Changing farming practices and diets and reducing waste will all be necessary.
Using fewer resources, and using them more efficiently, is key if farmers are to respond to the food security crisis, and this will mean the industry changing and adapting. There are associated benefits for farmers however, such as lower growing and transport costs. Read about how to use fewer resources and adopt sustainable farming practices in the Your Farm section of the toolkit.
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