UK biogas industry takes fight to Downing Street, urging ministers to back British gas over costly imports

UK biogas industry takes fight to Downing Street, urging ministers to back British gas over costly imports

07 September 2026  – London – Industry leaders have today sent a letter signed by more than 170 businesses and organisations, warning that a stalled government support scheme is putting British jobs, investment and energy security at risk.

Leading businesses and organisations from across the UK’s biogas and biomethane industry have today sent an open letter to Downing Street, calling on the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and the Chancellor, John Healey, to back British-made green gas.

The letter, signed by more than 170 businesses, farmers and organisations under the banner ‘Back British Biogas’, warns that the scheme supporting new biomethane production, the Green Gas Support Scheme, has run out of money, leaving investment-ready projects stalled just as the government looks for ways to cut household bills and reduce reliance on imported gas.

Signatories include PepsiCo, all of the UKs Gas Distribution Networks, energy giant Engie and UK wide trade bodies including, Future Energy Networks, and Energy Utilities Alliance and the campaign group the Green Gas Taskforce

Biomethane is made through anaerobic digestion, a proven process that has been used safely in Britain for decades. Food waste, farm slurry and sewage are fed into sealed tanks, where naturally occurring microbes break them down, similar to a cow’s stomach, to produce a gas that is chemically identical to the natural gas already piped into millions of British homes.

The process also enables the return of bio-fertiliser to the land, reducing farmers’ reliance on imported chemical fertiliser, and can capture a stream of carbon dioxide that can be sold or stored permanently underground.

Britain’s more than 740 anaerobic digestion plants already turn food waste, farm slurry and sewage into green gas, processing 36 million tonnes of waste a year that would otherwise go to landfill or be burned. Industry analysis suggests the sector could support 56,700 jobs and add £5.6 billion a year to the UK economy by 2050, with more than four in five of those jobs outside London and the Southeast.

The letter also points out that green gas keeps more of the money spent on it in Britain than any comparable low-carbon technology, with at least 80p of every pound of public support staying in the UK supply chain, and that a fully backed sector could save £415 a year per household from to the net zero transition.

The letter also calls on the government to adjust the treatment of biomethane under the UK ETS to accurately reflect its contribution to net zero. Currently, when delivered through the public gas grid, it is treated identically to fossil gas, despite having a dramatically lower lifecycle carbon impact, and in many cases resulting in negative CO2 emissions.

Chris Huhne, Chair of the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) and former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said:

“Britain already has the technology, the feedstock and the industry to cut our reliance on imported gas, and we are simply not using it.

“Every delay to fix the scheme that funds new biomethane plants is a trigger for investment to go elsewhere. Other European countries with the same gas problem – France, Poland, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Italy – and happily taking the investment we spurn.

“This isn’t a subsidy for the future; it’s a switch the government can flick now with quicker results than drilling any North Sea gas field.”

Read the open letter to the Prime Minister

-ENDS-

For further information, contact:

Cameron Ball, External Affairs Lead, ADBA
e: cameron.ball@adbioresources.org; tel: +44 7964 663710

Notes to editors

• British biogas has the potential to produce 120 twh, enough for half of projected gas demand, according to a recent study by Alder bio insights.
• Some 60,000 jobs would be created across the UK if British biogas was exploited to its full potential, according to a study by Baringa sponsored by the Green Gas Task Force.
• British biogas can create negative emissions by capturing and storing carbon dioxide more cheaply than any other mechanical process.
• British biogas saves on the need for investment in electrical transmission networks and more difficult offshore wind projects by generating gas locally.

About ADBA

The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) is the industry association for the UK anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas industry. ADBA’s vision is to see the full potential of the UK green gas industry realised so it can help the UK achieve its emissions targets and other policy goals, creating a truly circular economy. www.adbioresources.org

About the AD industry 

• There are currently over 750 AD plants operational across the UK
• The entire industry digests approximately 36 million tonnes of organic material each year – organic material that would otherwise emit greenhouse gases including highly potent methane, if left untreated in landfill.
• An estimated 21TWh of biogas is produced each year by the AD industry – this green gas is either used to generate electricity and heat via a combined heat and power (CHP) unit or upgraded to biomethane and injected directly into the national gas grid.
• The industry currently delivers savings of 1% off the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions every year.
• An estimated 4,800 people are currently employed in the AD and biogas industry in the UK.
• Overall, the industry grew by 5 per cent last year as the closure of older, smaller plants was outweighed by big-scale units feeding into the gas grid.
• Fully deployed, by 2050, the UK AD and biogas industry is expected to:
  • produce over 100TWh of biomethane
  • provide between 20% and 50% of UK gas demand
  • create 60,000 jobs (30,000 direct and 30,000 indirect).
  • save the UK 27 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent – equivalent to taking 1/3rd of all cars off the road
  • heat 6.8 million UK homes with the 8 billion m3 of biomethane generated

How AD works

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the natural breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen in a container called a digester. The process extracts the energy this material contains in the form of biogas leaving the remaining organic matter called digestate – a stable, nutrient-rich substance used as a biofertiliser which restores soil health. Organic wastes typically treated through AD include food waste, animal manures and slurries, other agri-wastes, food & drink processing wastes, sewage sludge.