28 June 2021
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3 min read
There are currently anaerobic digestion plants in operation in the UK
Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association touts potential to create 60,000 jobs and slash UK emissions in support of the net zero goals
The UK biowaste-to-energy sector has pledged to make the "greatest possible contribution" towards achieving the nation's net zero targets, claiming anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas alone have the potential to slash the country's overall greenhouse gas emissions by as much as six per cent by 2030.
The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) on Friday unveiled its 'UK AD and Biogas Industry Climate Declaration', which has been sent to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and has been signed by 48 companies working in the sector.
The declaration claims the UK's AD and biogas industry can play a crucial role in decarbonising the UK economy, while also creating up to 60,000 direct and indirect jobs by the end of the decade, but only if the government urgently provides a supportive policy and regulatory environment for the sector.
The industry is therefore calling on the government to create a policy strategy framework for AD and 'green gas', backed by innovation funding, incentives for recycling organic waste in the UK, and supportive policies to encourage the use of biomethane in transport and biofertiliser in farming.
Charlotte Morton, ADBA's chief executive, highlighted the "huge gap" between government's net zero ambitions and comprehensive support policies identified by the Climate Change Committee last week, as she urged Ministers to help the AD and biogas industry fulfil its potential.
"The UK AD and biogas industry alone can make up 30 per cent of shortfall required to meet the Fifth Carbon Budget by 2030, including mitigating especially harmful methane emissions from organic wastes this decade," she explained. "However, it can only do so if the British government acts now. Doing so would enable the Prime Minister to show the leadership we need as host of COP26 to encourage all other countries to follow suit."
There are currently 685 AD plants operating in the UK, turning an estimated 46 million tonnes of organic material that would otherwise end up in landfill - such as food waste - into 16TWh of biogas energy and fertiliser for farmland, according to ADBA. The biogas can then be used to generate electricity, provide heating via combined heat and power units, or turned into biomethane and injected directly to the gas grid, potentially providing enough heat for 1.3 million UK homes, the trade body said.
All in all, the AD and biogas industry currently delivers one per cent greenhouse gas savings in the UK every year, and employs 4,800 people.
However, with the right supportive policies and regulations in place, ADBA claims the industry could create 30,000 direct and 30,000 indirect jobs, while saving the UK 27 million tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent to taking a third of all cars of the roads - by 2030 and providing heating to 6.4 million homes.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was considering a request for comment at the time of going to press.
The intervention follows a similar climate declaration published by the World Biogas Association (WBA) in 2019, which set out the sector's aim to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 per cent by 2030, assuming supportive national policy measures are put in place.
Morton said the UK's AD and biogas industry was fully committed to playing its part in decarbonising the UK economy, and that ADBA would be working to encourage more firms to sign up to the declaration.
"ADBA will work with other industry stakeholders to encourage them to sign the Declaration and further demonstrate the industry's full commitment to helping decarbonise the UK economy - especially across hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as transport, heat and agriculture - and achieve the UK's climate change goals," she said.
