This week’s figures include an increased biodiversity premium for dairy farmers, government cash for greener farming, a promising report on countries that are decoupling emissions from economic growth and a clarification relating to the size of UK pig farms.
€4. FrieslandCampina is to pay its milk suppliers a maximum of €4 (£3.50) per 100 kilograms of milk under its Foqus planet scheme. Suppliers are encouraged to use more home-grown protein, a better nitrogen balance on farms, and increase efforts in nature and landscape management. The €0.50 increase in the premium for biodiversity improvements makes it “more attractive for member dairy farmers to focus on this area [and…] aligns with the growing attention from the market and society and helps the company achieve its nature-related objectives”, the dairy company said.
89%. New analysis from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) shows that an expanding share of the world economy is cutting carbon emissions while continuing to grow – meaning decoupling is beginning to occur at scale. The study, 10 Years Post-Paris: How emissions decoupling has progressed globally, uses the latest consumption-based global carbon budget data across 113 countries representing more than 97% of global GDP and 93% of global emissions. Overall, 92% of global GDP and 89% of global emissions are in economies that have decoupled, either relatively or absolutely, up from 77% for both in the decade before the Paris Agreement (2006–2015). The report shows widespread decoupling across Europe and North America, and in major South American and Southern African economies. The US and the EU fall into absolute decoupling, while India and China show relative decoupling, with China’s emissions growing far more slowly than GDP over the 2015–2023 period.
£2.3m. British farmers can drive the next wave of greener, smarter farming, with new technology trials tackling emissions, productivity, and resilience. Backed by nearly £2.3m across 30 projects through the first round of the government’s ADOPT Fund, the trials explore new ideas in real working farm conditions, from lower emission machinery to digital tools that support day-to-day farm management. The programme is designed to generate practical evidence about what works on farms before wider take-up.
100,000. The BBC has issued a clarification for an episode of Radical with Amol Rajan, after “misleading claims” were made about the size of UK pig farms. The claim was made by Lake District farmer and author James Rebanks, who told Rajan that “100,000 pigs isn’t a big pig farm anymore”. The National Pig Association (NPA) raised a complaint, explaining that it was “simply erroneous to suggest there are any farms in the UK anywhere close to having 100,000s of pigs on them”. NPA public affairs manager Tom Haynes said that according to the most recently available government data, the average size of a UK pig farm is 476. “Even once you remove holdings of less than 10 pigs, it is still 938,” he added. Rebanks acknowledged his mistake, insisting he had meant “producer/processors”.
