More trees, less meat ‘needed to save planet’

BRITAIN needs to plant more trees, eat less meat and scrap woodburning stoves to help stop global warming, the Government’s climate advice body warned today.

a report by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said ‘fundamental changes’ to the way we use land are needed to stop the planet overheating.

Boosting woodland cover from 13 per cent today to 19 per cent by 2050, restoring as much as 70 per cent of UK peatland, planting more hedgerows and encouraging more mixed farming could help deliver needed emissions cuts, it added.

The report, Biomass In a Low Carbon economy, warned that recycling will need to be greatly stepped up. ‘ By 2025 no biodegradable wastes such as food, paper, card, wood, textiles and garden waste should be sent to landfill,’ it said.

The Government is legally obliged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050.

Lord Deben, one of the report’s authors, said: ‘We need to have much more mixed farming, not just monocultures.’

Beef cattle have a role to play in fertilising soil through their manure, he added, but he warned against intensive farming. The report was not calling for vegetarianism but for people to eat less meat, he said.

Children in London have an average 5 per cent lower lung capacity than expected because of diesel fumes, tests by researchers in the city show.