December 22, 2009

UK moves forward in reducing livestock emissions

 
The agriculture industry in the UK has to find savings equivalent to three million tonnes of CO2 a year between now and 2020 to achieve the government's emissions reduction targets.

The targets have been set out in the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan that lays down the strategy for meeting the greenhouse gas emission reductions of the 2008 Climate Change Act. To meet the targets for the ruminant livestock sector, the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) has been working on a roadmap to give guidelines to the industry in ways it can meet the targets.

EBLEX seeks to achieve the reductions by measuring gains in production efficiency rather than reducing the numbers of livestock. By reducing livestock in the UK, the problem would just be transferred elsewhere, but naturally falling numbers of beef cattle and sheep driven by economic factors will deliver savings in the greenhouse gases per kilogramme of meat over the next 10 years, said EBLEX.

"Beef suckler, dairy cow and ewe numbers are forecast to continue declining in the coming decade due to the decoupling of support payments, competition with more profitable enterprises, problems in securing labour and fewer family successions," EBLEX says in its roadmap report, Change in the Air. This results in a continued reduction in both beef and sheep slaughtering and domestic production levels.

The report shows that there has already been a steady improvement in production methods with 5% fewer animals needed to produce each tonne of meat. English beef production currently generates a Global Warming Potential (GWP100) of around 13.9kg of CO2 equivalent and is consuming just over 31 MJ of primary energy per kilogramme of meat produced.