The report highlights that agriculture is uniquely placed to be part of the solution to decarbonising the Welsh economy and achieving net zero as both an emissions source and sink. There is no single answer and the achievement of net zero agriculture will need a range of measures under three broad headings of:
- Improving farming’s productive efficiency to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions – enabling farming to produce the same quantity of food, or more, with less inputs in smarter ways;
- Farmland carbon storage in soils and vegetation – improving land management and enhancing land use to capture more carbon, through more hedgerows, more farm woodland, and especially more carbon-rich soil;
- Boosting renewable energy and the bioeconomy to displace greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and to create GHG removal through photosynthesis and carbon capture.
The policy measures needed to enable Welsh farming to make its contribution to meeting our net zero aspiration will require a partnership approach and concerted support across governments, agencies, academia and stakeholders to act with us to deliver on this ambition.