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Inventory practice: UK’s GHG R&D Platform supports inventory improvements

Sadie S September 19, 2018
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Keywords: Institutional arrangements

In recent years, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has supported an inter-related set of research projects aimed at delivering an improved Tier 2/Tier 3 inventory for agriculture. Specific projects are summarized in the table below. Together, these research projects funded:

  • Reviews of existing research;
  • Collection and analysis of new data;
  • Disaggregation of the UK Agricultural Survey and farm practice data according to a typology of representative farm systems so as to be able to apply higher resolution EFs;
  • Improved inventory methodologies; and
  • The implementation of new data and methodologies in the national inventory.
Project codeProject titleSummary of contents
AC0115GHG R&D Platform Methane emission factorsAim: to develop new EFs by exploiting existing datasets held by partner organisations on measurements of ruminant methane emissions; new EFs will then be aligned with spatial and temporal disaggregation of UK farming systems to improve the precision of GHG inventory reporting.
AC0116GHG R&D Platform Nitrous oxide emission factorsAim: to develop new EFs from direct measurements of N2O in order to better reflect management systems within the UK, taking account of the range of soil types and climate, and to reflect potential mitigation methods
AC0114GHG R&D Platform Data managementAim: to provide fundamental improvements in the accuracy and resolution of the UK National Inventory and the development of a more detailed reporting methodology though an intensive period of coordinated exploration, synthesis and modelling of existing data from across the scientific community and industry data holders
SCF0102Delivering the agricultural GHG and ammonia inventoriesAim: to deliver annual inventories of ammonia and GHGs to Defra on a timely basis and annual updates of projected emissions. The project will compile the GHG inventory using the UKs current Tier 1 approach whilst developing an operational Tier 2/3 inventory in accordance with the guidance and evolving outcomes of the GHG R&D Platform.

Author: Andreas Wilkes, Values for development Ltd (2019)