Greenhouse Gas Emissions from UK Agriculture – are we counting correctly?

The UK is obliged to report national emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) on an annual basis under the Kyoto Protocol and EU Monitoring Mechanism. For the Agriculture sector, emissions have been estimated largely using default IPCC methodology. The recent move to using the IPCC 2006 Guideline methodology has had the effect of increasing the relative importance of methane emissions compared with nitrous oxide.

Beyond these improvements to the default methodology, the UK Government has funded a large inventory improvement program to give a better representation of UK soils, climate and agricultural management practices and, in particular, to enable the UK Devolved Administrations to monitor progress towards national emission reduction targets. Data from the large measurement programs for methane and nitrous oxide emissions are currently being brought together to develop revised emission factors which will be incorporated into a restructured inventory model providing a greater spatial, temporal and sectoral resolution for UK agriculture.