1. Outline
The Food and Trade Advisory Group was convened by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in 2024 to provide independent advice and guidance on the CCC’s understanding of the food and trade system and how this influences the deliverability of ambitious climate-resilient decarbonisation pathways for UK agriculture. Specifically, the group was asked to advise the CCC on:
- The role of trade and wider food system policy in enabling and/or posing risks to agricultural decarbonisation and increasing climate resilience.
- The priorities for UK policy actions in these areas to deliver the pathways in a fair way.
This report reflects the views of the Food and Trade Advisory Group and does not represent the views of the CCC, nor has it been endorsed by the CCC.
2. Key messages
- By the Seventh Carbon Budget period, the market drivers, trade relationships, and climatic conditions shaping UK agriculture will not be the same as today. The three key drivers of change relate to climate change and its impacts; non-climate changes in global markets; and changing consumption patterns. As the future unfolds, it is inevitable that the policy environment will change in response.
- Structural change in UK agriculture to reduce emissions can be driven in many ways through any number of supply-side or demand-side interventions, responding to policy and market forces acting domestically or internationally.
- Changing diets as a means of changing UK agriculture, to free up land and reduce its emissions, is certainly feasible; and there are a range of policy levers that can be used to influence demand while minimising the risk of carbon leakage from imports.
Topics
