Bid to restore peatland in region in city’s fight against climate change

A BID to restore vast areas of peatland in the Glasgow region is to be launched.

The wider Glasgow area is home to huge areas of peatland measuring 50,000 hectares – the size of North Lanarkshire.

But 80% of peatland across Scotland is “degraded”, meaning it is releasing as much carbon into the environment as all the country’s homes.

The dried-out peatland needs to be restored in order to capture carbon instead to help fight climate change, according to a report due to go in front of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet this week.

The cabinet is being recommended to approve a bid to formally launch the Clyde Peatlands project in the Glasgow region.

Two new peatland officers are to be recruited to “drive forward peatland restoration” across the region. A report said: “Healthy peatlands capture and store vast amounts of carbon and should play a critical part of the drive for net zero.

“However, degraded or driedout peat emits carbon rather than storing it and currently around 80% of Scotland’s peatlands are degraded through drainage, extraction and urban expansion.”

The report added: “This means that Scotland’s peatlands emit roughly the same amount of carbon each year as all of Scotland’s homes. Addressing this degradation has a major role to play not only in the drive for net zero, but in restoring a unique habitat that is home to an array of plants and animals.”

The newly hired peatland officers would be jointly managed by South Lanarkshire Council and the Green Network, with support from NatureScot.