The Sustainable Agricultural Transition: how to promote climate-beneficial measures with farmers in arable farmlands and within the livestock sector

Agriculture accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Many countries
including EU members and the UK have committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and
climate-beneficial farming measures will play a key role in reaching this goal as part
of the transition towards sustainable agriculture. A wide array of climate-beneficial
measures is currently available to farmers, incentivised through government agrienvironment
schemes and direct payments. While research has been carried out into
how to engage farmers in these schemes, there is a clear gap in the literature on how
to specifically promote climate-beneficial measures with farmers. This doctoral thesis
will centre around the United Kingdom due to the new agricultural policy and the need
for more research that has been identified for meeting the UK's climate change and
sustainable development commitments. I will therefore explore farmers' perceptions
of climate change and its mitigation and the economic, social, environmental and
political dimensions of farmer decision-making. I aim to identify ways of improving
knowledge exchange on climate mitigation. Ultimately, using existing collaborations
at the Centre for Environmental Policy, I will gain a detailed understanding of the
policy context and make recommendations for environmental land management and
agricultural policy. The findings of this research will benefit climate mitigation in the
UK and in countries with similar infrastructures and farming systems.