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Climate change advisers call for steeper air travel tax to reforest country

Trees act as a natural sequester of carbon dioxide - ©National Trust Images/John Mill
Trees act as a natural sequester of carbon dioxide - ©National Trust Images/John Mill

Air travel should be taxed more and EU funds redirected to pay for a dramatic reforesting of Britain’s countryside, the government’s climate change advisers have recommended.

Farmers should be incentivised to plant 100 million new trees a year and consumers encouraged to eat a fifth less lamb, beef and dairy to cut sheep and cattle grazing by 10 per cent, the Committee on Climate Change has said.

Leaving the European Union presents an opportunity to fundamentally reshape agricultural practices in favour of the environment, says the body’s new report on land use.

The committee is charged with advising the government on how it can achieve its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which it set down in law last year.

It estimated the costs of changing British land use to meet this goal at £1.4bn, which it said could be mainly funded by redirecting the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after Britain leaves the EU and by carbon levies on airlines and other fossil fuel producers.

Farmers are paid £3.3bn in subsidies every year under the CAP, most of it linked to owning land used for farming. Critics say the scheme, which was introduced in 1962, encourages farmers to use land for agriculture with little regard for the environmental impact.

“It’s time we ended this adversarial discussion between climate and farming,” Chris Stark the CCC’s chief executive said. “Our farmers are the stewards of the land and the measures we are proposing today would see these stewards bring in a two-thirds reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Mr Stark compared the investment in woodland to the subsidies that have been pumped into the UK’s offshore wind industry, now the biggest such market in the world.

The report came as the Prince of Wales warned the World Economic Forum that time was running out to save the planet. Prince Charles urged business leaders and governments to help the private sector divert an "approaching catastrophe".

The government last year pledged to meet net zero emissions by 2050 as part of its commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, following a recommendation from the CCC.

A 20 per cent reduction in red meat consumption forms a cornerstone of the proposals and the committee warned that this should not be replaced with imports, which tend to be more carbon-intensive than British grown meat.

Among the other recommendations in the CCC’s report is the restoration of at least 50 per cent of upland peat bogs, which act as a vital carbon sink and are mainly used for livestock grazing.

It suggests the government should ban the sale of peat for use in gardens and ban rotational burning on peatland, a common practice on grouse shooting estates.

Peat is often burned on grouse shooting estates to encourage the growth of fresh heather buds, which attract the animals  - Credit: Getty
Peat is often burned on grouse shooting estates to encourage the growth of fresh heather buds, which attract the animals Credit: Getty

The advice reflects policies set out in the new Agriculture Bill, which would see farmers paid for producing public goods, including better soil health and access to the countryside, though it warns that the government should take action well before this is due to start in 2024.

The report estimates a net social benefit to the country of £4bn including better air quality and flood alleviation.

Lord Deben, the chairman of the CCC, said it should be the polluters who pay for the environmental costs of their industries.

"At the moment the whole community is paying the cost of the users of fossil fuels because we pay the cost because of climate change," said Lord Deben, who as John Gummer served as Secretary of State for the Environment between 1993 and 1997.

"So what we are suggesting is that instead of them landing on the whole community - they should be in the price of the product. And we should use that money to do the things we need to do to clean up the mess that fossil fuels have created."

The National Farmers Union welcomed the report, saying "British farmers are very much part of the solution".  But it warned that plant-based products "do not always necessarily have a lower impact on the environment".

Fewer cows, more hedges: how the British landscape could change to reach net zero

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, as set out under the Paris agreement.

All the major parties promised to increase tree planting in the last election and even 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 of broadleaf and conifer woodland every year, equivalent to 90-120million trees, and an increase of 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 on their land, but they have had minimal take-up.

Up to 120 million new trees should be planted every week under the proposals
Up to 120 million new trees should be planted every week under the proposals

The committee’s recommendations would see significant investments in tree-planting along similar lines to the subsidies that helped the UK become the world’s largest off shore wind market.

Forestry could be included in a carbon trading scheme, for example, meaning that the carbon sequestered by the forest could be sold to airlines and fossil fuel providers to offset their own emissions. These costs could be passed on to consumers in 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 can be 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.

Red meat and dairy

The government should encourage a 20 per cent reduction in the consumption of red meat and dairy, the 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 7m hectares 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. There are precedents - in Portugal it has been illegal not to offer vegan options in public sector buildings since 2017.

But 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 beef and lamb grown here has a much lower carbon footprint than the global average.

It 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.

Some feel the measures don’t go far enough.

Greenpeace warned that the targets ignore the greenhouse gas impact from imported animal feed, which it says contribute to deforestation in South America.

The UK wastes around 10m tonnes of food every year
The UK wastes around 13.6m tonnes of food every year

Food waste

Some 13.6m tonnes of food is wasted in the UK every year, contributing an estimated 22m tonnes of greenhouse gas 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 to reduce additional emissions, and free 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 they reccommend include encouraging reduced portion size and having more effective best by labelling.

Food still safe to eat but past its ‘use-by’ 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 the risks must be managed.

The Soil Association said the government would need to do more to “join the dots between climate, nature and land degradation”.

Hedgerows are vital to biodiversity 
Hedgerows are vital to biodiversity

Hedgerows

Humble hedges can have an outsized influence on environment and biodiversity, providing habitats for insects, birds and small mammals.

Some 65 species of birds and 20 mammals find their home in British hedgerows and they help combat soil erosion and improve water quality. Hedges can also shelter and feed livestock and curb rural crime, according to the Nature Friendly Farming Network, which has called for a “bushier, woodier, wilder landscape” to encourage  across the UK.

They also act to sequester carbon dioxide - up to an estimated 500,000 tonnes a year - but it’s 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 by 2050.

Peatlands act as crucial carbon sinks but have suffered from mismanagement and overuse - Credit: Alamy
Peatlands act as crucial carbon sinks but have suffered from mismanagement and overuse Credit: Alamy

Peat

Peatlands are one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, storing twice as much of the greenhouse gas as all of its forests. That carbon is released when they are burned or destroyed.

Some 2m hectares of the UK are peatland, more than half in Scotland and the CCC recommends restoring at least 50 per cent of upland and 25 per cent lowland peat.

Peat bogs can have wider benefits for biodiversity. The Bolton Fell Moss in Cumbria saw the return of rare curlews, redshank and snipe after it was restored by Natural England. The bog had suffered extensive degradation after 50 years of use as a resource for peat in gardening.

Peat has been a go-to bedding for gardeners, a practice the government is advised to ban. Some 3 billion litres of peat are sold for horticultural use every year in the UK, despite pleas from environmentalists for alternatives to be used.

The report also recommends banning rotational burning, a practice commonly used on grouse shooting estates to encourage numbers of the animals.

Lord Zac 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.