Eustice backs technology to cut emissions after criticism

George Eustice has defended government efforts to cut emissions from the countryside, saying he was “optimistic” about the role new technology could play.

The environment secretary faced MPs at the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) after independent climate advisers warned his department, Defra, was “really, really failing” to deliver its part in cutting emissions to zero overall by 2050, known as net zero.

In its latest report, the Climate Change Committee said the government was not delivering on the policies needed to achieve net zero, singling out farming and land use, as well as buildings, as particular problem areas.

Climate Change Committee chief executive Chris Stark said the government programme was set up to deliver the targets the UK has but there was a “dishonourable exception for agriculture and land, where Defra are really, really failing to deliver emissions reductions at the pace required”.

But Mr Eustice told the EAC that some technological solutions needed to develop, such as ways to inhibit methane emissions from livestock, capture methane from slurry stores or substituting manufactured fertiliser with organic compounds.

“We need to keep the space for those technologies to develop in the way that we need them to, because we can’t achieve net zero just by planting trees, important though that will be,” the environment secretary said.

He added: “I think I could summarise our differences, with the Climate Change Committee, in that we are far more optimistic about the role that technology will perform in some of these areas, and we’ve already seen in the last two years that develop.”

Environment Secretary George Eustice is optimistic.