To cut carbon emissions, reduce unnecessary energy and material use, replace fossil fuels with suitable low-carbon alternatives, prevent food waste and tackle methane escaping from organic wastes. Individuals, businesses, farmers and governments have different opportunities to act, but all can contribute.
Biogas and biomethane deserve particular attention because they connect several of these tasks. A well-managed anaerobic digestion system can treat suitable organic wastes, capture methane, supply useful energy and recycle nutrients.
This guide explains ten practical actions, followed by the distinctive contribution of biomethane. It also preserves ADBA’s 2020 proposals so readers can see how long the industry has been making its case.
Originally published on 7 March 2020. Updated on 20 October 2026 with practical emissions-reduction guidance and current technical context. The ADBA press release dated 3 March 2020 is retained below as historical material.
What Does Cutting Carbon Emissions Mean?
Strictly, carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gas emissions are not identical. Climate action also needs to address gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.
A carbon footprint commonly expresses these different gases as carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e, using stated accounting methods. That allows different sources to be considered together, while recognising that the gases behave differently.
For practical decisions, ask which emissions an action reduces, over what period, and compared with what alternative.
10 Practical Ways to Cut Carbon Emissions
1. Measure Your Main Sources of Emissions
Start with the activities you can influence. At home, review heating, electricity, travel, food and purchases. A business should also examine its processes, purchased materials, transport and waste.
A carbon footprint calculator can provide a starting estimate, but its assumptions and coverage matter. Use it to identify priorities rather than treating a single result as an exact measurement.
For businesses, keep records of energy and material use so that progress can be assessed against a consistent baseline.
2. Reduce Wasted Energy
Review equipment schedules, controls and maintenance. Avoid heating empty spaces unnecessarily, leaving machinery running without a purpose or allowing poorly maintained systems to waste energy.
Businesses should investigate their largest energy-consuming processes before assuming that numerous small changes will deliver the greatest savings.
3. Improve Building Efficiency
Consider insulation, draught reduction, heating controls and suitable ventilation. The appropriate improvements depend on the building, its condition and how it is used.
Reducing heat demand also makes the task of supplying low-carbon heat easier. This principle applies whether the eventual energy source is electricity, a heat network or a limited supply of renewable gas.
4. Use Low-Carbon Electricity and Appropriate Electrification
Assess suitable renewable generation and efficient electric equipment. Heat pumps, electric vehicles and electrified industrial processes can offer important opportunities where their application is practical.
The UN Environment Programme’s practical climate guidance discusses energy efficiency, transport, food and consumption as connected areas for action.
Biomethane should complement effective electrification. Its value is strongest where the full system comparison demonstrates a useful emissions reduction.
5. Reduce Emissions from Travel and Transport
Consider whether journeys can be avoided, combined or made by walking, cycling, public transport or shared travel. Businesses can review delivery routes, vehicle loading and unnecessary mileage.
When replacing vehicles, assess suitable low-emissions options against the actual duty. Battery-electric vehicles and biomethane vehicles should not be compared through slogans: energy supply, operating pattern, infrastructure and lifecycle emissions all matter.
6. Prevent Food Waste
Plan purchases, improve storage and use edible food rather than buying it unnecessarily and discarding it. Businesses can measure where food losses occur and address purchasing, preparation and stock management.
Food production already uses land, energy and other resources. Recovering biogas from discarded food does not undo all those earlier impacts.
Our support for anaerobic digestion is therefore support for treating suitable unavoidable material, not a reason to create more food waste.
7. Separate Unavoidable Food Waste for Appropriate Treatment
Use your local food-waste collection correctly. Keep packaging and other contaminants out, following the collector’s instructions.
Businesses should ask their contractor where material goes, how contamination is managed and what happens to the treatment outputs.
For suitable food waste, anaerobic digestion can recover energy and nutrients instead of consuming landfill capacity. Our anaerobic digestion versus landfill comparison explains the differences and operating conditions.
8. Capture Methane from Suitable Organic Wastes
Farmers, wastewater operators and organic-waste businesses can assess whether controlled digestion offers a better route than their existing management system.
Manures and other organic materials can release methane when they decompose without oxygen. A digestion system creates an opportunity to capture that methane and use its energy.
The assessment must include the alternative treatment or storage method, gas losses and management of the remaining digestate. Not every organic material or site will support the same result.
9. Use Sustainable Biomethane Where It Can Displace Fossil Fuel
Biomethane is produced by upgrading biogas to a methane-rich gas meeting the specification required for its intended use.
Potential applications include gas-network supply, industrial heat, suitable transport fleets and flexible generation. The best use depends on local infrastructure, available alternatives and verified lifecycle performance.
Businesses considering a supply should ask about feedstocks, certification, emissions data and how environmental attributes are allocated. A renewable-gas claim should explain what is being purchased and counted.
Read our explanation of upgrading biogas to biomethane.
10. Measure Results and Support Wider Change
Track energy use, waste quantities and emissions using consistent methods. Separate actual reductions from targets, forecasts and purchased environmental claims.
Households can support effective local collections and responsible businesses. Employers can improve procurement and operating practices. Policymakers can establish dependable rules that reward measured outcomes.
Practical climate action includes making existing systems work better, not simply announcing new equipment or distant ambitions.
Why Biogas and Biomethane Make a Distinctive Contribution
The case for biogas is broader than producing another fuel. Its distinctive strength is combining organic-waste management with energy recovery and nutrient recycling.
The International Energy Agency’s 2025 assessment recognises this connection between energy, waste, environmental and emissions objectives.
That combination deserves recognition alongside electricity generation from wind and solar. These technologies perform different functions; a wind turbine does not treat slurry, and a digester does not replace the need for an efficient electricity system.
Capturing Methane Before It Escapes
For appropriate waste streams, capturing methane that would otherwise be released can be an important part of the climate benefit.
However, avoided emissions must be assessed against the actual alternative. A project should not claim credit for avoiding an unmanaged waste practice that would not otherwise have occurred.
Replacing Some Fossil Natural Gas
Burning biomethane still releases carbon dioxide. Its climate case rests on the complete production and use pathway, including its biological carbon source and the fossil fuel displaced.
Biomethane is not an unlimited resource. It should be directed towards useful applications rather than used as a reason to postpone efficiency improvements or better-performing alternatives.
Recycling Nutrients
Suitable digestate can replace some manufactured fertiliser when stored and applied according to crop needs.
That requires control of residual methane, ammonia and nutrient losses. Returning carbon to soil is a separate question: digestate application does not automatically establish permanent carbon sequestration.
Likewise, recovering carbon dioxide from biogas is not the same as removing it permanently from the atmosphere. Utilisation and durable storage must be distinguished.
What Makes the Climate Benefits Credible?
The IEA emphasises that methane management is essential to the environmental case for biogases. Measures include appropriate digestate storage, treatment of methane-containing off-gas and leak detection and repair.
Ask whether a project can demonstrate:
- Suitable, traceable feedstocks and a realistic alternative-treatment baseline.
- Reliable gas collection and useful energy delivery.
- Monitoring and control of methane losses.
- Appropriate digestate storage, quality and nutrient management.
- Transparent lifecycle calculations without double-counting benefits.
For the detailed evidence and mechanisms, see our dedicated guide to anaerobic digestion and climate change.
Who Can Act?
| Reader | Practical next step |
|---|---|
| Household | Reduce food waste and use the available separate collection correctly. |
| Food business | Measure avoidable waste, improve prevention and check the contractor’s treatment route. |
| Farmer | Assess manure management, feedstock availability, energy use and digestate outlets before selecting equipment. |
| Industrial energy user | Compare efficiency, electrification and suitable biomethane supply using a consistent lifecycle assessment. |
| Council or policymaker | Support effective collection, appropriate infrastructure and rules that reward verified emissions reductions. |
Our View: Recognise the Whole Contribution
Our reason for publishing this website is to encourage informed use of biogas and biomethane where they can reduce climate impacts.
Our view is that their combined contribution deserves more attention. Treating organic wastes, capturing methane, supplying usable energy and recycling nutrients can address several problems through one coordinated system.
Calling that contribution distinctive is justified. Claiming that every digester is automatically climate-positive, or that biogas alone can solve climate change, would weaken the argument.
The strongest advocacy is a practical case backed by reliable operation, clear evidence and honest comparisons.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are the Main Ways to Cut Carbon Emissions?
Reduce unnecessary energy and material demand, improve efficiency, use appropriate low-carbon energy, prevent waste and control methane. The most useful priorities depend on the person, organisation and location.
Can Biomethane Help Reduce Climate Change?
It can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions when suitable feedstocks are used, methane losses are controlled and the delivered energy displaces a higher-emissions alternative.
Is Biogas Better Than Wind and Solar?
There is no universal ranking. Wind and solar supply electricity, while AD also treats suitable organic material and produces digestate. The technologies can complement one another.
Does Choosing a Green Gas Tariff Mean My Boiler Receives Only Biomethane?
Not necessarily. Gas networks mix supplies, and some products allocate renewable attributes through certificates. Check the supplier’s explanation of the product and its accounting.
Should We Produce More Food Waste to Make More Biogas?
No. Preventing avoidable food waste comes first. AD provides a treatment option for suitable material that remains after prevention and appropriate higher-value uses.
Historical Perspective: ADBA’s Biomethane Pathway to 2030
The ADBA press release below was issued on 3 March 2020. It is retained, with its quotations and illustrations, as a record of the industry’s proposals at that time.
Historical report cover retained from the original article. The projections and policy context belong to the 2020 publication.
Its figures describe conditional industry estimates of potential deployment, jobs and emissions savings. They are not a statement that those outcomes have been achieved or an updated forecast.
In particular, the “30%” claim concerned the report’s estimated contribution towards the emissions reductions needed under the carbon-budget framework discussed in 2020. It did not mean eliminating 30% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions.
The release records the argument being made early: biogas could contribute across waste management, agriculture, heat and transport if the necessary conditions were provided. It supports the historical case for taking the technology seriously, rather than independently proving every numerical projection.
References below to policy deadlines, named office-holders, COP26 and a “zero-carbon gas grid” retain their historical context. The latter is an attributed aspiration, not a claim that biomethane combustion produces no emissions.
Read on and find out where biogas (biomethane) has a unique role by reading the Press Release which follows:
ADBA Press Release (3 March 2020):
Biomethane could deliver 30% of the UK’s 2030 carbon budget in hardest to decarbonise sectors, provide green heat to 6.4 million homes and create 30,000 jobs by 2030, says report
- With a supportive policy environment, anaerobic digestion (AD) technology could produce 8 billion m3 biomethane/year, enough to heat 6.4 million homes, by 2030.
- This would deliver a 6% reduction in total UK greenhouse gases emissions, specifically within the hard-to-decarbonise sectors of heat, transport, waste management and agriculture, and 30% of the reduction needed by 2030 to meet our legally binding carbon budget.
- The industry would directly create 30,000 green jobs and become a leading exporter of innovation, technology and professional expertise.
- The report sets out the pathway to full deployment by 2030 and identifies policy asks to stimulate growth.
Alan Whitehead MP today hosted the launch of Biomethane: the pathway to 2030, a major report by the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), which highlights the potential for biomethane to cut emissions in the hardest to decarbonise sectors of the UK economy such as heat, transport, waste management and agriculture, and achieve the country’s Net Zero target.
Fully deployed, the biomethane industry could deliver a 6% reduction in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – a third of the 5th Carbon Budget target – and provide heating for 6.4 million homes. It would also create tens of thousands of jobs, boost energy and food production security, attract investment into the green economy and enhance Britain’s competitiveness on the international sustainable technology market.
Unlocking this potential however requires a supportive policy environment and the report identifies the key policy asks that will enable the industry to flourish:
- immediate support for biomethane production beyond 2021
- extension of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation beyond 2032
- funding for innovation
- establishment of resource hierarchies for all organic wastes with AD as the optimal recycling technology
- development of a renewable biofertiliser obligation
- support for local circular economy projects around food waste recycling through AD into heat and power generation
Charlotte Morton, ADBA Chief Executive, said:
“Our sector has seen periods of very strong growth in the last decade as a direct result of supportive policy, but this has stalled in recent years due to the withdrawal of support. The next ten years, dubbed the climate decade, are our last chance to reverse the climate crisis. To reach its full potential by 2030 and make a real impact, the industry must grow faster than it has ever done. We therefore need robust and immediate support from government to capitalize on the sector’s wide-ranging environmental and social benefits, and to unlock a commercially viable, world-class AD industry with goods, services and expertise that can be exported around the world. In the face of the climate emergency, AD is not an option, it’s a necessity, and a technology that needs to be fully deployed NOW to create the healthy environment and healthy green economy that the UK needs.”
The report has been sponsored by Air Liquide, Privilege Finance and SNG.
Industry Comments on How to Cut Carbon Emissions the ADBA Way
Chris Winward, Chief Commercial Officer at Privilege Finance, commented:
“Now is the time for us to ensure policy makers understand the potential for energy from waste technologies to contribute towards achieving net zero and the creation of a more circular economy. Sending waste to landfill that could be used for energy production needs to be seen as socially unacceptable. Existing anaerobic digestion technologies offer a solution to both the problem of producing materials that ultimately end up in landfill, and the need to decarbonise our energy system.”
John Morea, CEO of SNG, said:
“The injection of further biomethane into the gas network is key to decarbonise heating through the 2020s and involves no disruptive changes for customers. We hope this report will raise the profile of the potential for biomethane to deliver a third of the carbon savings necessary to meet the UK’s legally binding fifth carbon budget and allow for the necessary policies to be introduced from when the Renewable Heat Incentive ends in March 2021.”
David Smith, Chief Executive of Energy Networks Association, said:
“We welcome this report that clearly shows the benefits of biomethane and anaerobic digestion which must play a critical role in helping us get to net zero. They are good for the environment, good for the economy and good for the public who will benefit from a low carbon, low cost energy system. In the run-up to COP 26 this year, what we now need is a commitment to roll-out the world’s first zero-carbon gas grid.”
ADBA Press Release Ends
[Published on 7 March 2020. Updated on 20 October 2026]
The UK’s current emissions make up only a small percentage of the overall global output. But, the country has led the industrial revolution and has made a major contribution to greenhouse gas pollution over time.
I think it’s the historic emissions that we must remember. We are guilty of those. It’s right that we move ahead of other nations in cutting our emissions from that point of view.