Improving the UK Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory

Significant revisions to the UK agriculture GHG inventory were required in response to the UK Climate Change Act (2008) to enable the UK Government, Devolved Administrations and the agricultural industry to monitor progress against national and international emission reduction targets. Requirements included the development of country-specific emission factors (EFs) representative of UK soil, climate and farm management practices and, importantly, the explicit inclusion of mitigation practices so that steps taken by the industry to reduce emissions would be fully accounted for. To facilitate this, the UK Government has funded research that will progress through several planned phases, including defining requirements, gap analysis, review and exploration of existing data sources, experimentation, data and knowledge synthesis, model building and improved inventory implementation. The research is being conducted through four linked projects: i) to develop improved enteric methane EFs; ii) to develop improved nitrous oxide EFs for emissions from soils; iii) to design the structure of an improved inventory model, defining parameters and data sources; iv) to implement the revised methods and provide the required annual reports. The involvement and continued dialogue between researchers, government bodies and the agricultural industry is recognised as critical to the successful outcome of the projects. In addition, the project team have engaged strongly with the international community through the Global Research Alliance, including activities aimed at standardising measurement methodologies, comparing models and seeking new data sources. This is seen as an important step in ensuring that the final improved inventory method and parameters meet the requirements of international reporting.