Climate-smart Dairy: Assessing Challenges, Innovations, and Solutions

Food systems are responsible for one third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Dairy production is a significant contributor to those emissions and, given that global demand for dairy is projected to increase, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from this sector. For example, a clearer understanding of the functioning and acceptability of climate-smart innovations that can be implemented along the dairy supply chain can contribute to achieving the UK's climate-neutral ambition by 2050. This project aims to assess challenges, explore innovations, and create new solutions to achieve a climate-smart dairy system in the UK. Using a multi-actor, multi-disciplinary approach, we will explore interconnections and consequences of climate-smart innovations within the dairy system. We will use a stakeholder approach to co-design innovations that will subsequently be evaluated using an experimental approach in which we explore consumers' perceptions and willingness to pay for climate-smart innovations. We will survey farmers to assess the current level of adoption of these innovations, and the constraints to further adoption. We will conclude our project with a discussion with stakeholders in order to co-create solutions that enable a climate-smart dairy system that is acceptable to all actors from farm to fork.