Peatland emissions ‘worse than all lorries’

DAMAGED peatland is producing as much carbon as all HGVS on British roads, the RSPB has warned.

It said millions of hectares of degrading peat risked cancelling out planned climate action such as planting trees.

Emissions f rom peatland have reached 23.1mt of carbon dioxide and make up 5 per cent of the UK’S annual greenhouse gas emissions, compared with HGV emissions of 20.1mt of carbon dioxide, the RSPB said. In the UK, peatlands make up 12 per cent of land and are believed to store over three billion tonnes of carbon.

Martin Harper, the charity’s director of conservation, said peatlands damaged by commercial cutting and fires were “haemorrhaging carbon into the atmosphere”. He said: “Some progress is being made, but what remains abundantly clear is all governments need to go further and that across the UK the damaging practices that create the need for restoration – such as burning, overgrazing and commercial extraction – are not allowed to continue.” Naturally peatlands are a carbon store, but over the years they have been damaged by extraction for horticulture and heather burning for grouse hunting.

Peat has historically been harvested for use in gardening products. A decade ago the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set a target for it to be phased out by this year, though it remains on the shelves of many shops and garden centres.

The RSPB said 76 per cent of the UK’S 2.7 million acres of peatland is degraded, with only 2 to 4 per cent having been restored over the past three decades.