National Farmers’ Union (NFU) chief renewable energy and climate change adviser Dr Jonathan Scurlock set out the industry’s recommendations for action at the European Parliament as part of the UK Agriculture Industry’s Climate Change Task Force report international launch on March 3.

The report is a joint initiative between the NFU, the Country Landowners Association (CLA) and the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) and underlines the essential role played by agriculture in the fight against climate change, and the substantial economic, social and environmental benefits in taking action to ensure agriculture remains economically and environmentally viable.

Scurlock said: “Given the UK and EU targets for greenhouse gases and the challenging renewable energy targets in the EU Renewables Directive, there has never been a more critical time for the UK agriculture industry to demonstrate the contribution it can make.”

The report, entitled ‘Part of the Solution: Climate Change, Agriculture and Land Management’, emphasises the contribution that self-regulation can provide, highlights best practice and identifies areas for improvement. It also contains a series of recommendations, underlines the need for successful partnership working whilst highlighting the research needed to guide future development and the level of support required from the government to achieve success.

The five priorities set out in the report are:

-directed research on the UK greenhouse gas inventory;

-delivery of best available practices for integrated nitrogen management to improve current nitrogen efficiency;

-raising awareness of energy and carbon accounting, and promoting energy efficiency and carbon management by the industry through financial incentives;

-removing barriers to the uptake of anaerobic digestion to harness methane emissions from animal manures as a source of heat and power;

-and realising the wider potential for the land-based industries to supply renewable energy.

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