This week marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, writes the Farmers Union of Wales.

Also starting this week is the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), which takes place from 6–18 November in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

During the next few weeks the hot topics among world leaders and state officials, and many other organisations and the media will be on how to build on the commitments to the global climate change agenda that were made last year in Glasgow (COP26).

Delegates will, as always, be encouraged to act on critical issues such as the reduction of greenhouse gases, building resilience and adapting to the impacts of climate change, and supporting climate action in developing countries.

This is of course of great importance and there will no doubt be those who think that the answer to solving all the problems will be to have a meat and dairy free diet. Suffice to say that they are wrong in making such baseless claims. However, we think it is an excellent opportunity to have a positive conversation about red meat and dairy, as well as the industry's actual impact on the climate.

Take for example greenhouse gas emissions - according to DEFRA (Farm Practises Survey England 2022, published May 2022) in 2022, nearly 2/3 of farmers reported that they were currently taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their farm and the most common motivation for taking any action was that it was considered good business practice to do so (84%).

This has been the case for the past ten years. By contrast, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, reported on 2020 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions and stated that transport was the largest emitting sector in the UK responsible for almost a quarter of emissions (24%) whilst agriculture was responsible for 11%.

It is also worth noting that between 2019 and 2020 there was a 3% decrease in emissions from the agriculture sector.

Farmers across the country take the climate emergency seriously and are actively taking steps to mitigate that impact by taking action to control soil erosion, protecting peatland and moorland from damage by avoiding ploughing, drainage and overgrazing.

Farmers are also considering reduced cultivation to protect farm soils and reduce carbon losses, managing existing farm woodlands and considering new planting, creating wildlife corridors along water margins, field margins and headlands and are protecting and where necessary restoring wetlands including floodplain management.

And they do much more! Our members are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, whilst producing sustainable, nutritious food.

Excluding red meat from our diets to safeguard the environment and reduce greenhouse gases is unfortunately a simple but evidence free claim made and repeated by many.

The truth however is that grass makes up 90% of the feed needed for cows and sheep to prosper and 90% of water needed to produce British and of course Welsh beef is rainwater.

So we would urge you to carefully consider the facts over the next few weeks, as those with an alternative agenda will no doubt be active on many platforms spreading false information about our industry.