Mitigation measures in the 'smart inventory': Practical abatement potential in Scottish agriculture

The UK’s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions measures progress towards reduction targets. Themethodology for agriculture has recently changed to better reflect the relationship between agriculturalmanagement and GHG emissions.The new methodology is called the ‘smart inventory’. It estimates the GHG effects of a wider range oftechnologies and management options than was included in previously (inclusion of technology detailsmostly depend on the existence of robust scientific evidence about the emission effect). Nevertheless,for some of these technologies data on the current uptake is not yet available, and there are furthertechnologies where the scientific evidence is not robust enough to make conclusive recommendationsor include in the smart inventory.This report summarises the extent certain agricultural practice changes in Scotland are (or could be)recognised in the smart inventory. The purpose of this assessment is to provide information to policymakers on what changes in Scottish agricultural practices are reflected in the UK GHG inventory, and,additionally, what further steps could be taken to reflect Scottish agricultural practices moreaccurately.