Carbon & Climate Change

We are already seeing the effects of changing climate, and it will increasingly affect farm businesses directly through weather patterns, as well as indirectly in how businesses and supply chains operate. While all sectors have a role to play in eliminating and reducing avoidable greenhouse gas emissions to assist in meeting the wider climate change and emission reduction targets, this also presents farm businesses new opportunities, as well as a need to adapt, and to increase business resilience and efficiency.

This section provides a wide range of technical information on what climate change and the increasing focus on carbon means for farms in Scotland, from optimising livestock productivity and managing soil health, to adapting to climate change, and understanding developments in climate policy. Maximising productivity and efficiency within farming enterprises is directly correlated to an improvement in the carbon footprint of a farm. Many on-farm carbon mitigations will not only improve your carbon footprint but benefit the productivity and profitability of the business.

The Net Zero Arran , Hoddom and Kinmount Estate and Farming for a Better Climate projects showcase case studies of practical actions on farms, and how these have positively impacted business performance and profitability. Each section also links to relevant FAS podcasts, publications and videos, so you can subscribe and be notified of digestible updates on a topic of interest..

Useful Links & Resources

• Farming in a Rapidly Changing and Chaotic Climate
• Technical Notes & Practical Guides
• Valuing Your Soils booklet
• Farmer’s guide to sourcing and using digestate and compost
• Carbon Management Calendar - Monthly recommendations on actions that can be taken on farms to monitor and manage carbon footprint, resource use and environmental outcomes, as well as key deadlines and events throughout the farming calendar. There are guides for downloading the calendar for both Outlook and Google Calendar.