Report on GHG reduction potential from agriculture

In August 2009, Defra published a report by ADAS entitled: Analysis of Policy Instruments for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture, Forestry and Land Management (project code RMP/5142).

The report looks at the assessment carried out by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) for the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) into the potential for reducing emissions from agriculture. The CCC's report can be found here (see part III ch 9) and the SAC modelling work itself can be found here.

The SAC report gives a range for the possible mitigation potential‚ with much depending on the cost society is prepared to pay for CO₂ mitigation. The CCC report, which used the SAC as the basis for its assessment, states that for 2020 it might be possible to reduce agricultural GHG emissions by between 6-13 MTCO₂eq assuming a carbon price of approximately £40/tonne CO₂.

The ADAS report revisits the SAC conclusions and does three things:

• Reviews the mitigation methods as set out by SAC
• Sets out and selects the possible policy instruments
• Evaluates the mitigation potential and the costs thereof.