greenhouse gas emissions – The NEN

‘Alarming’: Rising carbon footprint due to consumption of imported goods

Figures released by the Scottish Government yesterday (15 March) show that Scotland’s carbon footprint has increased for the first time in six years.

The greatest increase came from the greenhouse gas emissions from imported goods. Emissions from imports are now greater than the rest of Scotland’s emissions combined.

Scotland’s carbon footprint measures the greenhouse gas emissions from all the goods and services consumed by Scotland in a year. However, Scotland’s Net Zero targets only include greenhouse gases emitted in Scotland. Emissions from imports are excluded from national climate targets and this means they can rise unabated.

The Circular Economy Bill, which is due to be consulted on in May, is a chance for Scotland to reverse this trend and start taking responsibility for its environmental impacts overseas.

In a circular economy, materials consumption is reduced by reusing products rather than burning or burying them after a single use. This means producers need to think about how the product can be reused from the initial stages of design, and choose materials accordingly.

Kim Pratt, circular economy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland said: “The rise in Scotland’s carbon footprint is alarming. By only looking at the emissions produced at home, we are ignoring the greatest part of our carbon footprint and failing to play our full role in tackling the climate crisis.

“The climate emergency doesn’t recognise any borders, and by outsourcing the emissions from imports to other countries, the Scottish Government is shirking its responsibility.

“The Scottish Government can reverse the rise in emissions by putting strong consumption targets at the heart of its newly announced Circular Economy Bill – this is the only way to ensure that Scotland reduces its global environmental impact.”

Scotland’s carbon footprint was 70.4Mt CO2e in 2018, a 2.6% rise on the previous year.

City council: less hot air!

Council reports record greenhouse gas emissions fall for 6th year running

The City of Edinburgh Council greenhouse gas emissions have continued to fall for the sixth year running.

This has been helped in part by the upgrading of LED street lighting across the city, and a drop in fleet emissions.

The findings, which have been released as part of the latest Public Bodies Climate Change Duties (PBCCD) report, reveal that Council emissions have been cut by 11% in the past financial year – supporting the Council’s ambition of becoming a net zero organisation by 2030.

The reduction, which also includes emissions from Edinburgh Leisure, is mainly thanks to a fall in electricity consumption, achieved through lighting or other energy efficiency upgrades, property closures during the pandemic and greening of the electricity grid.

The upgrade in LED street lighting across the city also contributed to a third of the drop in overall electricity use. A decrease in the use of the heavy vehicle fleet and a drop in business travel during the lockdown also helped emissions fall.

In 2020-21, emissions from buildings made up 66% of the Councils carbon footprint. Meanwhile, emissions from waste totalled 9%, fleet 10%, business travel 1% and other energy consumption, such as street and stair lighting, alarms and traffic signals made up 14%.

The report will be considered by the Policy and Sustainability Committee on Tuesday 30 November, alongside the final Council Emissions Reduction Plan – which outlines the initial steps the Council needs to take to become a net zero organisation by 2030.

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “It’s fantastic to see our hard work paying off, cut our carbon emissions for the sixth year running. It shows that major programmes of work to support a greener, net zero council by 2030, such as making Edinburgh’s street lighting more energy efficient, is having a real positive impact on the organisation and the city.

“While achieving an 11% drop in emissions this year is a significant achievement that we’re looking to build on, we must not become complacent. We know that 2020-21 was a unique year, and some of the changed to how we worked during the pandemic have contributed to this drop.

“As we transition back into the workplace over the coming months, we need to build on our progress to date and bank some of the progress of changes made during the last year. By continuing to make our buildings more energy efficient and encouraging colleagues to use more active and sustainable means of travel for work where possible we can recover from the pandemic in the greenest way possible and keep us on the track to net-zero by 2030.”

As well as reporting on the Council organisational emissions, the PBCCD report also covers the action taken by the Council to get ready for the unavoidable impacts of climate change – such as flooding and heatwaves.

It highlights that there has been a large increase in adaptation and climate risk activity being embedded across Council services, policies and plans – including the creation of the Edinburgh & Lothians Strategic Drainage Partnership to spot and reduce flood risk in the city and work to identify risks and protect Edinburgh’s World Heritage site, historic buildings and coastal communities.

It also highlights the Council’s new sustainable procurement strategy, which was launched in March 2020. The new policy means that Council procurement activity now contributes to its compliance with climate change duties.

Depute Leader, Cammy Day added: “The challenge we now face as a Council is how we maintain and improve on these reductions in emissions – which is why I’m delighted to see the publication of our Council Emissions Reduction Plan.

“By calculating the emissions impact of all of our activity and providing a clear plan for how we can cut our footprint, we can continue to make progress and build on our successes to date, helping to deliver environmental benefits along with wider health, economic and wellbeing benefits for everyone who lives and works in Edinburgh”.

The report will be discussed at Tuesday’s Policy and Sustainability Committee.

Key stats from the report:

69% – fall in Council’s business travel emissions footprint – caused by lockdown.
2.3% – the total increase in household waste tonnage collected by the Council. This is due to citizens spending more time at home during and after national lockdowns.
25,300: The number of average UK household’s annual energy needs which can be covered by the electricity generated from Millerhill Energy from Waste plant.
52,810 – The number of energy efficient streetlights installed in Edinburgh to date (up to Friday 5th November). A further 2,190 lanterns are still set to be installed by the end of the year. NB 9,000 were already energy efficient.

Positive diets for negative emissions in beef race to net zero

Diet is at the heart of beef’s race to net zero, according to respected Dr Karen Beauchemin, a federal scientist in Canada and an international authority on Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from livestock farming.

Seaweeds, fat from crushed oilseed rape and feed additives have all been part of a practical research programme she and her colleagues are carrying out, looking at both feeding and breeding to make the economics and environmental commitment stack up for beef producers.

“The goals of economic and environmental sustainability go hand-in-hand in beef farming and are complementary,” she says. “We have discovered multiple methods of reducing methane emissions in beef production, but the number one way is still to improve overall efficiency whether that’s through more kilograms reared per cow or improved grass utilisation.”

The studies have shown that methane is a direct result of the amount and quality of food, and in this week’s QMS podcast, Dr Beauchemin, who has worked in animal nutrition for over 30 years, looks at diet-related strategies that can be used to reduce methane emission patterns, and achieving the balance for producers to make cumulative gains.

“The research shows that methane emissions are highest when diets are higher in fibre, such as grass or silage, but this can be mitigated by cutting silage earlier to minimise the starch levels.

“And, although by feeding concentrates and grains producers can reduce emissions, we don’t want to overfeed these to beef cattle as their unique ability is to digest highly fibrous feeds like grass that cannot be consumed by humans and make use of that energy to produce food that can be.”

In Canada, consumers have been paying a carbon tax since 2019, $20/tonne soon to rise to $170/tonne, but it is not currently applicable on agricultural products.

There is pressure from the retailers, however, and the Canadian beef industry has introduced a low carbon beef framework to allow retailers to source from producers who are working to reduce their environmental impact.

The “badge” on the supermarket shelf is more than GHGs, however, explains Dr Beauchemin. It includes land use, water management, animal welfare and a healthy work environment.

On the challenges of consumer perception of livestock production on the environment, she adds: “Cattle do produce GHGs but they are producing food. With cars we’re talking about fossil fuels that are extracted from the earth and the CO2 emissions emitted are in the atmosphere for a long time.

“Methane from animals is part of a biological cycle. We have energy trapped in plants by photosynthesis, those plants are converted by animals into energy that goes into producing meat and milk for human consumption. The methane emitted in this system is short lived – it is broken down in about 12 years.

“Also, the animals are maintained on pasture and those pastures are sequestering carbon or have sequestered carbon, so they have large reserves. We have to be careful with comparing the emissions from animal production with fossil fuels.”

While there is a lot of interest in using breeding to improve feed efficiency, Dr Beauchemin focuses on diet over genetics. She has been very involved in the commercial-scale study of 3-NOP, a feed additive from manufacturer DSM which inhibits methane in the rumen.

In collaboration with several teams including experts in large-scale methane measurement, feedlot nutrition and health consultants, the results from 15,000 cattle have shown that it can reduce methane in a forage-based diet by up to 25% and by 80% in a feedlot finishing diet.

The podcast series is available through Apple Podcast, Buzzsprout, and Spotify, as well as via the Quality Meat Scotland website and social channels.