All rural households make choices regarding their energy consumption, food, and transport, while households managing land additionally make choices regarding land use. All of these have implications for GHG emissions – the first three through the burning of fossil fuels, and the fourth through emissions of CH₄ from livestock, N₂O from fertiliser applications, organic matter management, and offsetting of GHG emissions through carbon sequestration and provision of renewable sources of energy.

Current projects:

• Searching for sustainable land management strategies aimed at decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from economic performance
• A combined agent-based and biophysical modelling approach to address GHG mitigation policy issues
• Climate Change and Agriculture: are we asking the right questions? A one-day seminar-workshop supported by the British Council and Scottish Executive.
• Transitions to low carbon economies by rural communities
• Preferences for improved management of soil carbon in Scotland
• Socio-economic evaluation of climate change mitigation schemes in forestry
• Agent-based simulation of effects of social interactions on climate policy outcomes – harnessing social and informational interactions between farmers to reduce GHG emissions
• GILDED (Governance, Infrastructure, Lifestyle Dynamics and Energy Demand): An EU-funded project to investigate how lifestyle dynamics impact on carbon-intensive energy use

Other research:

• Impacts
• Ecosystem services