New analysis shows that emissions reductions for farming and land use in England are off track or going backwards.

It is likely that this year agriculture and land use has leapfrogged electricity generation to be the fourth biggest emitter, after domestic transport, buildings and industry.

Analysis of government data by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) shows that progress on emissions reductions for farming and land use is significantly off target. Progress lags behind other sectors to such an extent that it is possible the sector could be the biggest emitter by the middle of the 2030s.

Although the rate of progress towards woodland creation in England improved last year, up to 4550ha in the year to March 2024, from 3130ha the previous year, this is still well short of the target to plant 7500ha of new woodland by 2025. And the percentage of farmers engaged in low carbon farming practices such as energy efficiency and improving the efficiency of manure and slurry management has gone backwards, down to 48 per cent from a high of 66 per cent in 2020.

Commenting on the analysis, Tom Lancaster, land food and farming analyst at ECIU said, “There is a tragic irony in farmers’ harvests, revenues and the UK’s food self-sufficiency falling due to a winter which climate change made wet in the extreme, and the sector’s own emissions remaining high for at least the last decade. The UK’s farms and land could well be releasing more greenhouse gas emissions than its power stations. Look ahead another decade and the UK’s land, including agriculture, could be our number one source of emissions.”

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