How landscape of Britain will change in fight to save planet
Meeting target of zero net emissions by 2050 will require mass tree planting, bio crops and less red meat
REACHING net zero emissions by 2050 will require a “fundamental” shift in the way Britain’s land is utilised, the Government’s climate advisory body has recommended.
The recommended policies could reshape the country’s landscape, with implications for farmers and consumers.
Woodlands
Trees capture planet-warming CO2 from the atmosphere and are increasingly seen as vital in the fight to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
All the major parties promised to increase tree planting in the last election and Donald Trump this week committed to the US joining the World Economic Forum’s 1 Trillion Tree project.
The Government has been advised to help plant around 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of broadleaf and conifer woodland every year, equivalent to 90120million trees a year, and to increase forestry cover from 13 per cent to 17 per cent of the country by 2050.
There are already limited schemes to encourage farmers to plant more trees, but they have had minimal take-up.
The committee’s recommendations would involve significant investments in tree-planting along similar lines to the subsidies that helped the UK become the world’s largest offshore wind market.
Forestry could be included in a carbon trading scheme, for example, meaning the carbon sequestered by the forest could be sold to airlines and fossil fuel providers to offset their emissions. These costs could be passed on to consumers through higher air fares.
A similar carbon-offsetting scheme exists in New Zealand, though it has faced flagging uptake from potential foresters, partly due to a fall in the global carbon price.
Wood can be harvested as a renewable energy source, and used for home construction, providing up to a 20 per cent reduction in emissions per house. And trees have other benefits – not least in mitigating flooding, a growing problem as the warming climate leads to increased rainfall.
The Government has been advised to ensure hospitals, prisons and schools offer at least one vegan meal every day
Red meat and dairy
The Government should encourage a 20 per cent reduction in the consumption of red meat and dairy, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recommends, drawing on evidence that plant-based diets have a lower carbon footprint than meat.
A reduction of one fifth of meat consumption could free up to 7 million hectares (17.3million acres) of land for other uses that cut carbon as well as limiting the methane emissions from cows. Methane is a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than CO2. Though its lifespan in the air is decades, rather than centuries, it is a major contributor to the warming effect on the environment.
The Government has been advised to carry out awareness campaigns to encourage eating less meat, and to ensure hospitals, prisons and schools offer at least one vegan meal every day. In Portugal it has been illegal not to offer vegan options in public sector buildings since 2017.
However, the CCC warns that the cut in the consumption of British meat and dairy should not be replaced with imports, particularly as UK farming practices mean a much lower carbon footprint than the global average.
The CCC believes its recommendations reflect existing eating trends in the UK, where the number of vegans rose from 150,000 to 600,000 between 2006 and 2018. But it warns that in the future the Government may need to consider regulation or pricing to bring consumption down to 50 per cent if other measures to limit greenhouse gases are not effective.
Greenpeace warned that the targets ignore the greenhouse gas impact from imported animal feed, which it says contributes to deforestation in South America.
Food waste
Some 13.6million tons of food is wasted in the UK every year, contributing an estimated 22million tons of emissions annually. This is largely from the emission on landfill of methane.
The CCC recommends setting a target of reducing food waste by 20 per cent, freeing up land used to produce food that goes straight to the bin.
Among the measures it recommends is mandatory food waste collection across the country, as a measure to both highlight the amount of food wasted and to repurpose it.
Other measures include encouraging reduced portion size and having more effective best-by labelling.
Food still safe to eat but past its “useby” date is one of the single biggest sources of waste, according to waste experts WRAP.
Bioenergy crops
Among the more contentious recommendations in the report is an emphasis on bioenergy crops. The crops, including miscanthus and short rotation coppice, can be used as an energy source, raising money for farmers.
But the CCC’S own report recognises that the crops can have “negative impacts on biodiversity, soil health, water quality and invasive species” when planted in the wrong place or on a large scale. It says risks must be managed.
The Soil Association yesterday said the Government would need to do more to “join the dots between climate, nature and land degradation”.
Hedgerows
Modest hedges can have an outsized influence on environment and biodiversity, providing habitats for insects, birds and small mammals that help to combat soil erosion and improve water quality.
They also act to sequester carbon dioxide – up to an estimated 500,000 tons a year – but it is these wider effects that make them worth investing in, says the CCC.
It recommends public funds should be used to increase hedgerows by 181,000 hectares (447,000 acres) by 2050.
Peatlands are one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, storing twice as much greenhouse gas as forests
Peat
Peatlands are one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, storing twice as much greenhouse gas as forests.
Some 2million hectares of the UK are peatland, with more than half of that in
Scotland, and the CCC recommends restoring at least 50 per cent of upland and 25 per cent lowland peat.
Peat has been a go-to bedding for gardeners, a practice the Government is advised to ban, as 3billion litres of peat are still sold for horticultural use every year in the UK.
The report also recommends banning rotational burning, a practice commonly used on grouse shooting estates to encourage numbers of the animals.
Lord Goldsmith, the environment minister, last year suggested the Government was considering a ban on grouse shooting estates, a move welcomed by environmental groups.
It also recommends mandating water companies to protect their peatlands, which produce 70 per cent of the country’s drinking water.