UK must cut land use emissions by two thirds to meet 2050 goal, advisers warn

(Climate Change News, 23 Jan 2020) Committee on Climate Change warns a fifth of all agricultural land needs to be released for climate mitigation to help the UK achieve carbon neutrality.

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The UK needs to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use by two thirds to deliver on its economy-wide pledge for carbon neutrality by 2050, government advisers have warned.

In a report published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the UK government’s official climate adviser, has called for rapid and major shifts to farming practices, agro-forestry and consumer behaviour to decarbonise the UK’s land sector.

Emissions from land use have risen since the 1990s to represent 12% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. The CCC outlined what it would take for the UK to reduce emissions from land use by 64% by 2050.

The CCC has previously warned that achieving carbon neutrality in the UK would need to involve all sectors of the economy but that not every sector would individually need to achieve net zero emissions. Instead, negative emissions technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, could be used to offset remaining emissions.

Under the CCC’s latest recommendations, a fifth of all agricultural land needs to be used to suck carbon from the atmosphere, by planting trees, restoring peatlands and soils and growing bioenergy crops with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Growing timber and bioenergy crops would also generate further emissions cuts in other sectors of the economy when used with carbon capture and storage.

The advisers said this would enable the use of land to reduce carbon emissions while also balancing other priorities for land use, such as food production and flood protection.

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Climate Change News, 23 Jan 2020: UK must cut land use emissions by two thirds to meet 2050 goal, advisers warn