Changes in land management needed to tackle climate issue

long as it was done sustainably, with tighter rules on sourcing plants for energy, substantial increases in using wood in buildings and developing technology to capture carbon from biomass power plants.

Lord Deben, chairman of the committee, said: “We have an urgent need to change the way we use our land, and that is central to the battle against climate change.

“Unless we do it we won’t be able to meet targets Parliament has already signed up to. And we need it not just for dealing with mitigation of climate change but also for adaptation.

“We need to have much more mixed farming, not just monocultures, not just to replenish the fertility of the soil that needs to come back, not just for food production, but so that the soil can be a proper sequesterer of carbon. It’s absolutely central to the battle against climate change.”

Beef cattle have a role to play in fertilising the soil through their manure and even the way they walk, he said, but he warned against the intensive farming that monocultures produce.

“What we’re saying is not that the answer is vegetarianism – that would be the wrong answer. It’s that people will eat better meat, eat less of it, get the balanced diet that the Government wants. Land use policy is going to have to be fundamentally different than it has been since the war,” he warned, saying the new Agriculture Bill drawn up as the UK leaves the EU must carry many of the needed measures.

Given how different land management would have to be compared with the last century, he said it would be important for farming to be treated as a profession with improved training and refresher courses provided for people in the industry.