UK Farming to Obtain Climate Benefits

A collaboration between environment charity Forum for the Future, the National Farmers' Union (NFU), the Applied Research Forum (ARF) and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has built a project that highlights climate change.

The project was launched at the Oxford Farming Conference on Wednesday.

The scheme, which runs for 12 months initially, features the economic opportunities, as well as the environmental threats from climate change.

Farming is responsible for 7% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions and needs to be part of the effort to tackle climate change, the organisers say.

A website will offer farmers advice on what measures they can take, such as generating green energy from waste.

Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future, said the role farmers could play in the climate debate had been overlooked.

"The farming community is somewhat punch drunk after the last few years because there have been so many changes, such as the [Common Agricultural Policy] reforms and changes to farm payments. The whole thing has been non-stop," he told BBC News.

"I don't think the farming community has had an opportunity to fully engage in the climate change agenda in the way some other sectors have.

"Given the enormous significance of what can be done through land use and farming, this was a real opportunity to bring together a consortium... to get out there and work with farmers."

NFU president Peter Kendall said it was "absolutely fundamental" that farmers saw themselves as environmentalists.

"I farm in Bedfordshire, and the farm that surrounds my house where my kids play is our environment, and we see it first hand that climate change is happening," he told BBC News.

He said greater investment was needed to understand the impacts that climate change was having on UK farming.

"There is a lot of ignorance about climate change throughout the industry," he added.