Almost half of UK boards (46%) spent zero hours discussing climate change this year, and they are the least likely of all of the countries and regions studied in a new report to feel responsible for their impact on the climate - with almost a third (32%) feeling little or no responsibility.

At a global level, fewer boards are ignoring climate change in comparison to last year, with those board members spending zero hours discussing this issue in the boardroom falling to 40% from 55%. In the UK, the zero hours figure has reduced from almost two thirds of boards in 2018 (61%) to 46% in 2019, but the report says that progress is too slow. 

Governments around the world are seeking to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the fight against climate change, to reduce waste to landfill, and to increase their utilisation of renewable energy in compliance with international agreements. Consequently, in many countries, subsidies have been made available to encourage the growth of the biogas sector.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) a third of global power capacity is now based on renewable energy, and nearly two-thirds of all new power generation capacity added in 2018 was from renewables. Much of the recent growth was provided by solar and wind energy, but global bioenergy capacity has roughly trebled in the last 10 years.

There has been a great deal of comment on the recently published draft Agriculture Bill, which seeks to set out how the government will support farming after Brexit. CCRI Director, Professor Janet Dwyer has just completed her detailed reading of the Bill and has the following observations:

“Is Defra becoming DEF? – the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, via the powers enabled in this draft bill, looks set to lose its future engagement with Rural Affairs.

Amidst the uncertainty of what the future holds for UK farming post-Brexit and what the new British agricultural policy will look like, achieving resilience of the agricultural sector will be an important goal.

Researchers from the University of Gloucestershire’s Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) are working with a team of European scientists to develop a novel resilience-enabling framework that can support policy makers and the farming sector to enhance the sustainability and resilience of farms and farming systems.