Scottish Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Nitrogen Use Statistics

The Chief Statistician has released more detailed figures on agricultural emissions. Results show that in 2022 total agriculture emissions fell by 3% to 7.7 MtCO­2e. Increased fertiliser prices may have contributed to the decrease in emissions from agriculture in 2022, as usage rates fell from the previous year.

Total agriculture emissions have been in a long-term decline, largely driven by falling livestock numbers. Since the baseline period in 1990, emissions from agriculture have fallen by 12% as cattle and sheep numbers decreased by 19% and 32%, respectively. However, in more recent years, agriculture emissions have been relatively stable, ranging from 7.9 to 8.0 MtCO2e between 2016 and 2021.

The suckler beef subsector has the largest share of Scottish agriculture emissions. In 2022 emissions from suckler beef were 3.2 MtCO2e, 41% of agriculture emissions. From 1990 to 2022 suckler beef emissions fell by 0.6MtCO2e (17%). This was the largest absolute reduction across the agriculture subsectors. Emissions from sheep and dairy beef subsectors have also fallen by 17% from the baseline period. This follows the trend of declining livestock numbers over the same period.

The report also includes emissions and nitrogen use estimates for the average Scottish farm in 2022-23.  Nitrogen balance, the difference between total nitrogen input and output, fell by 28% for the average farm from 2021-22 to 2022-23 and resulted in increases for nitrogen use efficiency estimates. These trends were seen for most farm types. On average this was driven by increased farm output. But a larger decrease in nitrogen input from fertiliser was seen for cereal farms.

Background

The full statistical publication with supporting data tables is available at:

Scottish Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Nitrogen Use Statistics 2022-2023 (data.gov.scot)

Results for the agriculture sector, along with national greenhouse gas emissions, were released in the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics 2022 publication. The report includes new subsector analysis based on methodology developed by SRUC . Subsector analysis allocates total Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics emissions from agriculture to subsectors that align more closely with agricultural enterprises.

Farm level results are calculated from the 2022-23 Farm Business Survey, which covered the 2022 cropping year and the 2022-23 financial year. The Farm Business Survey is an annual survey of approximately 400 commercial farms with economic activity of at least approximately £20,000. Farms which do not receive support payments, such as pigs, poultry and horticulture, are not included in the survey. On-farm emissions are estimated using a life cycle assessment (LCA) based carbon calculator (Agrecalc). Nitrogen estimates are based on standard estimates of nitrogen content in all farm inputs and outputs where possible.

More information is available at: https://data.gov.scot/scottish-agriculture-greenhouse-gas-emissions-nitrogen-use-2022-23/methodology.html

The data are designated as official statistics in development. They are being released to involve users in our assessment of the suitability and quality of the data.

We would like to hear about your use of this data, please get in touch with us at agric.stats@gov.scot.

For the latest statistics news follow us on Twitter @SGRESAS.