The Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) has joined forces with the UK arm of WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund, now WWF-UK) to commission research aimed at cutting the UK's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Based at the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy, the FCRN is working with WWF-UK to develop a two-stage programme of joint work.

They have invited proposals from interested parties for stage one of the research. This is expected to be published by mid-June and will entail an examination of a range of feasible scenarios for achieving a substantial cut (possibly 70%) in GHG emissions from the food chain by 2050, exploring both the technological and behavioural options.

Stage two of the work will look in greater detail at the barriers and opportunities for achieving these reductions and examine what policies and business action will be required to achieve them.

A recent FCRN report called Cooking up a Storm concluded that it would be possible to reduce GHG emissions from the UK food system by 70% by 2050. The report also recommended that government should make a commitment to reducing emissions by this degree and should set out how it intends to do so, stating what proportion would be achieved through technological and managerial improvements and how much would be taken from changes in the balance of diets, or what people eat.