The true extent of agriculture's contribution to national greenhouse gas emissions

The extent of emissions attributed to the agricultural sector using the Scottish Government approach is much greater than that using the other approaches-largely resulting from the inclusion of cropland conversion in the Scottish Government calculations. Attribution of these emissions to the agricultural sector gives calculated emissions of 10.63 Mt CO2eq in 2009, compared to 7.06 Mt CO2eq using the IPCC guidelines. This has implications for the agricultural community and may influence how and if they choose to act to reduce emissions. A large reduction in emissions from cropland conversion since 1990 means that total agricultural emissions in Scotland have fallen 26.64% when calculated by the Scottish Government, compared to a drop of only 19.13% reported to the UNFCCC.