Is There Ever a 'Perfect' Time?

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is now urging the UK government to delay, until 2025, the bringing in of its 'eco-friendly' Environmental Land Management schemes (Elms) (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/26/uk-miss-net-zero-target-eco-friendly-farming-elms-scheme-delayed-report-aoe). The NFU claim this 2 year delay is essential, because of the 'rocketing cost' of fertilisers. This cost rise is, of course, linked to the war in Ukraine. The NFU would prefer government to continue to cover the EU's Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) until 2025. The BPS gives farmers subsidies, simply on the basis of the amount of land they own. How the land is managed for environmental impact is not a factor. In order to reach the UK's proposed net zero pathway, agriculture, forestry and other land use, have to cut emissions by 25% by 2030 and 33% by 2035. Elms was designed to achieve a third of these farming emissions cuts. Consequently, delaying Elms for 2 years, would produce a substantial gap in UK agriculture's contribution to the net zero target. It is unclear how/whether other sectors (e.g. transport, housing etc) could make up this deficit. These are difficult times but delaying Elms, does not appear to be a good option, in what is an already tight schedule. Getting anywhere near net zero, was always going to cause pain. Not getting to net zero would, however, be catastrophic!