Methane (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Lord Grantchester Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Grantchester (Lab)]

I open my remarks today by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, for the excellent way in which she chaired the committee throughout a rather tricky period over the election and change of Government last summer. The committee also changed its policy adviser and support clerks during this inquiry, yet its coherency hung together with its themes and approach. I thank Flo Bullough, who set off with the committee as its policy analyst, and Lily Paulson, who saw us to a safe conclusion. I also thank the clerks to our committee, Emily Bailey Page and Andrea Ninomiya. I declare my interests as recorded on the register, notably activities on a dairy farm, with agriculture featuring prominently and extensively in the report.

The committee benefited from a very divergent membership—not only in being cross-party, of course, but from hearing a wide range of experiences and opinions regarding climate change and the role of the Government in mitigating methane emissions. I am told that the number of meetings needed to resolve drafting issues set a new record high and certainly prolonged publication, yet I am pleased that the committee was able to agree unanimously to a final wording, despite many reinterpretations. This was in no small measure due to careful handling by our excellent chair.

The noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, has given an excellent account of the committee’s findings and recommendations. We received many detailed scientific papers and had many interesting witnesses give evidence. I draw attention to the important contribution given by Professor Myles Allen from the University of Oxford on understanding the different nature of methane as a greenhouse gas, the importance of how it differs in its effects from carbon and, therefore, the importance of various methods of measuring and reporting on it between GWP100—that is, global warming potential 100—as against GWP* and GWP20.

Understanding this, I found it disappointing that the Government chose to reject our important recommendation 2, to publish a methane action plan in support of other government plans and strategies, stating that this was covered already in the existing five-year carbon budgets. The proposed updated plans for the latest carbon budget, with the 2030 NDC—nationally determined contribution—contributing to the Global Methane Pledge, will certainly be meaningful. However, it would also have been worth while to outline in a comprehensive individual action plan vital steps that could be interpreted as methane actions.

Part of this focus that such an action plan could embrace would be the improvement in monitoring and verification, both nationally and internationally. The Government’s action here is welcomed, in their response to the committee’s recommendation 3 on the establishment of an international body to assess and report the methane action plans of the pledge’s participants. Nationally, a more concerted structure proposal for sector monitoring is beginning to take shape, especially in the agricultural sector. That agriculture is beginning to look exposed, as the sector finds it most difficult to make meaningful reductions and progress, became a large part of the committee’s investigations for solutions.

While the committee examined other sectors in the report, I will concentrate my remarks on the agricultural sector. The Minister will be aware of the important work being done by his department on emissions measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification improvements. Within agriculture, the levy-funded pilot project to showcase the importance of an on-farm environmental baseline is being undertaken by AHDB—the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. The aim is to create a nationwide standardised dataset across the various sectors within agriculture to enable more accurate reporting of emissions from the bottom up—that is, at farm level—in the environmental impact of agriculture. This is important to reveal the true net carbon position on the balance of emissions and carbon removals through farm coppices, woodlands and other features, which would also include carbon sequestration potential.

The outcome could be instructive as a dataset to show the range and variety of results from individual farms to allow the industry to move away from relying on national and international averages. Does the Minister agree that, in targeting agriculture as being most in need of methane reductions, providing a more accurate reflection of its position and progress towards net zero is an important part of his department’s greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and verification programme? Can he confirm that agriculture’s progress is part of the GEMMA—Greenhouse Gas Emissions Measurement and Modelling Advancement—programme?

Farming’s impact on the environment is amplified by the lack of accurate farm-level data. The evidence to the committee from Professor Dave Frame, professor of physics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, that all farmers should “know their numbers”—namely, have data on their farm’s impact—was very revealing. Here, I draw attention to the go-to guide produced by the Innovation for Agriculture on behalf of WWF and Tesco. Valuable information could be provided through farmer data collected as part of the NFU’s Red Tractor assurance scheme. I request that the Minister feeds this to his Defra colleagues in their review of the sustainable farming incentive, which is relevant to our recommendation 15. For example, Tesco was also involved in the research of the feed additive, Bovaer, and runs important carbon footprint monitoring of farms.

ForFarmers also undertook research on Lintec made from a Pacific variety of linseed to enhance bovine health, fertility and sustainability. Costs are prohibitive for livestock producers at the moment. Can the Minister update your Lordships’ House on the dairy demonstrator project, which is in our recommendation 12? I am also aware of the UK Dairy Carbon Network project, which is also funded by Defra and being undertaken by AHDB and AgriSearch. How do these complement each other?

I am grateful for the evidence about the selective breeding improvement programmes provided by Drew Sloan of Semex. Costs and risks are already being shared appropriately across government and industry. It is now imperative that the Government look to improve communication, through the proposed land use framework, to integrate the rural dimension with wider challenges on the demands for infrastructure, housing and growth. The report also embraces methane in its wider applications, with waste management and emissions extending into the offshore oil and gas industries. It underlines the importance of not only reducing emissions but capturing them for beneficial use.

This is a very important report to which the Grand Committee will need to return as progress continues towards 2030 and beyond.