An alternative metric to measure methane backed by UK farmers

Known as Global Warming Measurement (GWP*), it provides a measurement of methane behaviour in the atmosphere and more accuracy in its net contribution to global warming, claim scientists from the University of Oxford, UK.

In November 2022, the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU) and the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock hosted a forum of stakeholders and scientists, and all agreed that a more accurate representation is needed, with the NFU asking for a unified approach at the national scale using the original GWP100 metric and GWP* among other factors.

‘Government support is needed in order for farmers to access the capital investment they need to implement interventions to reduce methane and other greenhouse gases.’ says NFU Deputy President Tom Bradshaw. ‘The NFU will continue to engage with Defra on how methane reductions are recorded, incentivised and valued both by the public and private markets.’