Energy Use in Agriculture report

In early 2008 Warwick HRI produced a report for Defra entitled Direct energy use in agriculture: opportunities for reducing fossil fuel inputs.
(This is a pay service from Defra.)

The report examines energy use in agriculture and the scope for emissions reduction. According to its analysis, agriculture emits around 1.19 million tonnes of carbon as a result of direct energy use, which is equivalent to 0.8% of total UK emissions (and higher than previous DUKES calculations – Digest of UK Energy Statistics) NB: note that this is energy-related emissions only and does not take into account nitrous oxide and methane emissions which account for the bulk of agriculture related GHG impacts.

The report finds that measures to improve energy efficiency could reduce emissions by 15% by 2015 but it says that this saving could be much higher with the adoption of alternative, low-carbon energy sources. It looks at a spectrum of technologies on offer, including anaerobic digestion, wind and solar and concludes that, if all of the barriers to the uptake of alternative fuels were removed, agriculture could ultimately become almost carbon neutral with regards to direct energy use. However, without Government support, the high associated costs are likely to be a considerable barrier to the uptake of such energy sources.