Methane (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Lord Roborough Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, on securing this debate, and all members of the Environment and Climate Change Committee on their excellent report Methane: Keep up the Momentum. In particular, we on these Benches appreciate the detailed and pragmatic approach and the opportunity to learn so much about methane emissions and management.

I draw the Grand Committee’s attention to my register of interests, in particular as an extensive grazing-based dairy and stock farmer and an investor in Agricarbon, Circular Algorithmic and Data Systems, Cecil Earth, Valaris and Noble Corporation.

The issues of methane emissions and their continued rise have been ably explained by the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, and the noble Lord, Lord Jay. I fully associate myself with those remarks but do not intend to repeat them.

We on these Benches understand that environmental responsibility means striking a balance between affordability and necessity. For Governments and individuals to have a realistic probability of success in preventing greenhouse gases causing disastrous climate change outcomes, we must forget pursuing fantasies of the perfect with high-cost, headline-grabbing technologies and instead make pragmatic, and affordable choices every day using cost-effective solutions and innovations.

This is why we welcome the committee’s emphasis on such practical strategies to reduce methane. We also welcome the opportunity to reflect on how we as a country can go further by building on past achievements, supporting innovation and placing trust in our industries, farmers and communities.

The UK has made remarkable progress. Since 1990, we have reduced our methane emissions by more than 60%. This is more than almost any other major economy. That achievement should be a source of national pride. In fact, as president of COP 26 , the UK played a central role in launching the global methane pledge, an international effort to reduce global anthropogenic methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030.

Domestically, we have led by example in key areas. In energy, we have seen methane leaks from oil and gas production reduced significantly through strong collaboration between government and industry and through smart, proportionate regulation. In agriculture, we have introduced initiatives such as the slurry infrastructure grant, helping farmers reduce emissions while continuing to feed the nation and remain globally competitive. In waste, we have seen dramatic reductions in landfill methane emissions, largely thanks to better waste processing, energy recovery and recycling infrastructure. We must sustain this momentum, and there are several areas where action is clearly required.

The agriculture sector is now the UK’s largest source of methane emissions after the reductions achieved in other sectors, primarily from livestock and manure. The committee rightly highlights the potential of innovation; feed additives, selective breeding—accelerated by precision breeding as the noble Lord, Lord Trees, highlighted—and improved animal health all offer effective ways to reduce emissions without cutting production, but we must be clear: our farmers are not the problem. They are stewards of our land, providers of our food and vital players in restoring nature and reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. We must not burden them with unrealistic or punitive targets. Instead, we must provide them with the tools, certainty and support they need to innovate and invest.

Farming is a business, and like any business, it must remain viable if it is to be sustainable. We must be careful not to place the blame on farming for global warming, when farmers are simply responding to economic pressures from their customers for wholesome, affordable food. Any measures that we require farmers to take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will lead to higher food prices and these have to be affordable for hard working families. We must also be careful not to place our farmers at a competitive disadvantage to overseas farmers, as this will simply lead to a greater reliance on higher emissions, lower cost imported food and undermined viability for our farmers, as the noble Lord, Lord Trees, warned.

The NFU has outlined the importance of promoting sustainable practices, and many farmers are ahead of the curve, but they need clarity. They need policy frameworks that empower rather than restrict and financial incentives that are practical and accessible. I fully support the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, and his comments about assessing the holistic farm picture, including carbon sequestration when calculating the net farm greenhouse gas emissions footprint. As the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, highlighted with the bark example, this is still likely to be inaccurate as science is still developing.

On the oil and gas sector, we on these Benches believe in an affordable energy transition, incorporating continued development of our own gas resources in order to make energy bills affordable for consumers, restore our industry’s competitiveness and reduce our dependence on imported energy. We must ensure that any such development is done with best practice around management of methane emissions, including restricting flaring and venting. Our North Sea energy sector has led the world in technology adoption. For example, our offshore wells have been hydraulically fractured or fracked since 1980, and we can do so again in methane management.

Our energy sector has already reduced methane emissions by 70% since 2002, including a 48% reduction in flaring since 2018—remarkable achievements. Given how clean our North Sea fossil fuel sector has become, I ask the Minister whether it is better to continue to develop our oil and gas resources, rather than import dirtier products from overseas. I also heartily endorse comments from the noble Earl, Lord Leicester, in his call for more digestate gas entering our gas network.

We need better data and more accurate emissions accounting. It is clear from the comments of Professor Hamburg that we in this country have world-leading expertise in monitoring and evaluating emissions, putting us in a strong position to drive international understanding. This means embracing a dual approach that many Lords have mentioned, including both GWP100 and also GWP*, which better reflects the warming profile of short-lived gases such as methane. It also means recognising the nutritional value of food and the central importance of cheap energy to our economy, alongside their carbon footprints. We must not fall into the trap of measuring environmental impact in a vacuum, neglecting wider considerations like food and energy security, affordability and trade competitiveness.

We must avoid adopting ideological arguments and look to pragmatic, evidence-led decision-making. The reduction in methane emissions should be achieved not through arbitrary targets but through investment, innovation and science-based policy. On reading the report and listening to noble Lords in this debate, I was particularly struck by the opportunity that we have to share best practice and technology that we have learned and developed since 1990 with other countries. The Green Alliance highlighted the opportunity in Latin America to help shape its policy on landfill gas capture. I ask the Minister what this Government are doing to promote the export of our expertise to these other countries.

A number of noble Lords mentioned the emissions trading scheme. I should strike a note of caution in the desire to include methane within the ETS, as its shorter duration is unlikely to fit comfortably with the persistence of carbon itself. In a way, we are talking about two different things and it becomes a confusing picture if we put methane into the carbon trading system. I am most interested in the Minister’s view on this matter.

In conclusion, the committee’s report is not just a reminder of what we must do but a testament to what we have already achieved and a call to build upon that success. Methane mitigation is not a fringe issue; it is central to achieving our climate goals. It is an opportunity to protect our environment and support our economy. I commend the committee for its work and urge the Government to act with clarity domestically and with energy internationally.