It is not as obvious as car pollution but farming contributes quite a bit to the world-wide CO2 emissions and now farmers are being encouraged to work to cut the carbon emissions on their land and in their operations.
They have been asked to commit to the Greenhouse Gas Action Plan, a target to reduce carbon emissions by three million tonnes a year from 2018-2022.
Indeed, the UK agricultural sector accounts for nine per cent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, including 38 per cent of the UK’s methane emissions and one per cent of CO2.
Agriculture minister Jim Paice commented: “This is the first step on the farming sector’s road to becoming more sustainable and I expect the partner organisations to show clear leadership as industry works to meet this challenge.”
To help the industry, the government has pledged £12.6 million to improve the measurement of on-farm emissions. It has also launched a scheme to offer advice to farmers on how to reduce their emissions and will work with the supply chain to encourage them to improve their carbon footprint.
It comes as new government research shows that methane emissions can be reduced just by changing the diet of cows and sheep. I guess we should look for carbon emission reduction where we can, so I would love to see farmers chip in!