Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the contribution of the agricultural industry to total UK carbon dioxide emission levels in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart

Defra works closely with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to identify carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture. We provide detailed farm statistics that DECC feeds into the UK Green House Gas Inventory, which contains the UK’s official reported greenhouse gas estimates.

The Inventory indicates that:

• Only around 1% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the UK are attributed to agriculture, these relate mainly to fuel use. Since 1990 there has been an overall decline in estimated carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture.

• CO₂ emissions from agriculture as a proportion of the UK total have fluctuated over the last 5 years between 1.0% and 1.2%. CO₂ emissions from agriculture are lower in 2013 compared to 2009 by around 6%.

• CO₂ emissions make up a very small portion of agriculture emissions (around 9-10%).