A new project aimed at developing a common accounting framework for the UK farming and food sector to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, has just been awarded over £2.5 million in research funding.
The three-year project – ‘To Zero Fifty’ Greenhouse Gas Accounting Living Lab, is one of five research projects that comprise the £14.5 million government sponsored Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) programme.
LUNZ was established by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to help drive the transformation of UK land use required to achieve the national target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The five “ambitious” research projects will aim to revolutionise agricultural practices, land use change and soil health in the pursuit of a more sustainable future for food production.
The ‘To Zero Fifty’ initiative will be led by the University of Gloucestershire and Cranfield University in collaboration with The University of Aberdeen, Scotland’s Rural College and Harper Adams University.
This university led project has also partnered with three major greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting companies – AgreCalc, Farm-Carbon-Toolkit and the Cool Farm Alliance, and Savills natural capital team to establish the framework designed to assess sustainable means of reaching net zero.
Reaching net zero involves finding a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) that is produced and the amount that is removed from the atmosphere, which will inevitably require large-scale changes in the way land is currently used, particularly in relation to the agri sector, according to researchers.
While there are multiple tools currently available to help measure the extent of the GHG emissions, there is a need to evaluate and converge these tools, to build understanding about their optimal useage and to minimise negative social impacts, research suggests.
Speaking about her participation in the project, Dr. Sylvia Vetter, who is from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Biological Science, has said: “I am really excited to be working on this project.
“My role will be to lead the work on evaluation in regard to the use of carbon calculators and assessing future trends in farm level emissions.
“I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues on the consortium and doing our bit towards the extremely important goal of reaching net zero by 2050.”
Net zero by 2050
Various stakeholders from across industry, public life and policy domains will be engaged throughout the process in a bid to foster greater dialogue as well as a collective approach to tackling GHG emissions.
The project will compare GHG calculators, not just in terms of functionality but also in terms of scalability potential, capacity to enhance net zero literacy, sequestration predictions, validation methods and social and economic implications.
“In summary, we aim to provide evidence about the means for driving effective and informed usage of GHG accounting tools to inform policy and help achieve a net zero transition.
“We envisage that a credible and coherent GHG verified accounting framework, with common input proforma and underpinned by governance equity principles, will enable farmers to actively manage and reduce GHG emissions at scale,” the researchers behind ‘To Zero Fifty’ said.
This grant is co-funded by UKRI, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and has been co-designed with Northern Irish, Welsh and Scottish governments.
