The GHGAP shows the agricultural industry’s commitment to playing its part in tackling climate change, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by three million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year from 2018-22. The GHGAP is one of a range of initiatives that is already helping farming to produce more while impacting less.
Members of the GHGAP steering committee:
What is the action plan?
The aim is to meet this challenge without compromising domestic production. It is too simple a solution to produce less and import more. This simply ‘exports’ our emissions to other parts of the world. This action plan focuses on how farmers, across all sectors and farming systems, can become more efficient to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make cost savings per unit of production.
Agriculture can also make a big contribution to mitigating climate change by storing carbon in soils and vegetation and by generating renewable energy. The Greenhouse Gas Action Plan sets out to show that farming is part of the solution.
What is involved?
The idea is to make the most of what is already in place and what new science tells us, so that we get better at what we do. Trusted routes of influence should help farmers, growers and land managers to carry out the GHGAP’s priority actions - by improving their use of energy and nutrients, their management of crops and livestock and reducing their own carbon footprint.
The GHGAP partnership represents the breadth of the agricultural industry in England. Its focus is on working better together, with government and with the food supply chain. It will regularly report on progress so that farmers and land managers can be confident that their changes in farm practice are leading to lower emissions.