UK could miss net zero target if eco-friendly farming scheme is delayed, warns report

theguardian.com:

There will be a “substantial gap” in UK agriculture’s efforts to reach net zero if post-Brexit environment-friendly subsidies are delayed by another two years, according to new analysis.

The National Farmer’s Union (NFU) is urging the government to delay Environmental Land Management schemes (Elms) until 2025 and keep the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in the interim period, which pays farmers for the amount of land they own, regardless of its impact on the environment.

Representatives say this is to provide some stability during a tumultuous time for UK farmers, with the price of fertiliser rocketing due to the Ukraine war, Covid-related staff shortages, the departure of EU seasonal workers, and other Brexit-related issues. Labour’s shadow Defra secretary, Jim McMahon, has backed the NFU’s stance.

However, analysis by the thinktank Green Alliance shows that delaying Elms – the main means of helping farmers decarbonise – would see agricultural emissions savings in 2035 at half what they could have been if the Elms programme was delivered on time. Because emissions savings are cumulative, this would put more pressure on other areas to decarbonise even faster to make up for this loss, leaving a “substantial gap in the UK’s net zero plans”, according to the report.

Agriculture, forestry and other land use needs to cut emissions by a quarter by 2030 and a third by 2035, according to the government’s proposed net zero pathway. “The flagship Elms programme is responsible for a third of farming emissions cuts,” said Dustin Benton, policy director at Green Alliance, and author of the report. “Rather than supporting the UK’s leading farmers to make their farms more sustainable, in the way the government promised during the Brexit