Climate change and cheese
Welcome to 2018! I did eat too much cheese but it was quality – Tunworth is a particularly notable one. Also had a fair bit of creamy Lancashire as I was in the neighbourhood up in Preston. And, despite the rumours, there is sun up north in the winter. I have photographs to prove it.
So, on to this year. Climate change, despite the insistence of some in certain governments, is here to stay, and the increased costs will be borne by the dairy industry. New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has just welcomed the New Zealand government’s latest move to address climate change, including its plans to establish a Climate Commission.
Carolyn Mortland, Fonterra’s director of sustainability says the co-operative is committed to engaging with the government on the development of a robust Zero Carbon Act, which represents the interests of all stakeholders.
New Zealand, like a lot of other nations, is seeking to become a low carbon economy, and dairy, of course, is a big part of that. Dairy UK here in the UK offers tools online such as the Environmental Benchmarking Tool, which helps members monitor and improve their performance and allows users to benchmark their performance with complete anonymity from others in the industry. The efforts appear to be working: recently published results from the Environment Agency in the Climate Change Agreement biennial progress report show that the dairy sector has achieved an 18.05% energy efficiency improvement since 2008.
With this improvement, the sector has already exceeded the 2020 Climate Change Agreement and Dairy Roadmap targets of 13.6% and 15% respectively, Dairy UK reports. There has also been a 30% shift in the destination of waste away from landfill and towards recovery or recycling in the UK.
All to the good. Here’s to a better climate for 2018.
