The first annual report to Parliament by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), published on the 12 October, concludes that a step change is required in the pace of UK emissions reduction to meet carbon budgets, and that in some areas, new policy approaches will be required to deliver the Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan. The report's key findings are that: In the 5 years 2003-2007, emissions reductions averaged 0.5% per annum: going forward, reductions of 2-3%pa will be required to meet the carbon budgets. A step change in the pace of reduction is needed.

Published by Angela Druckman et al of Surrey University (Druckman A, Bradley P, Papathanasopoulou E, Jackson T. Ecological Economics (2007)) shows that that the accounting convention chosen for reporting carbon emissions radically changes the conclusions that may be drawn about UK's progress towards its carbon reduction targets.

A recent Defra funded project conducted by ADAS investigated the economic feasibility of farm greenhouse gas mitigation methods (GHG MMs) and identified drivers and barriers to uptake for 6 farm types and 3 farm sizes through a farm survey in the study, " Feasibility of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Methods- AC0222". Ten mitigation methods were selected for evaluation based on their potential cost-effectiveness, identified in previous reports. For details see table below.

The Poultry Site reports on an article in USA Today that in turn reports on a farmer who is making biochar from chicken manure. The farm produces up to 800,000 chickens a year. You can read the Poultry Site article here and the original, longer article in USA Today here.

Associated British Foods plc (ABF), the international food, ingredients and retail group announced in June 2007 that it has joined forces with BP and DuPont to build a world-scale biofuel plant in the UK. The ~£200 million plant will produce bioethanol from wheat and is expected to produce 420m litres (330,000 tonnes) of bioethanol a year. Production is expected to start in late 2009.