The Committee on Climate Change has published two reports about changing use of land mass and biomass in a low carbon economy as part of their response to the Paris Agreement and the inevitability of climate change. They believe that legislative reform is required to ensure that UK land is used appropriately and, where necessary, is earmarked for reducing national emissions. The CCC expresses concerns to a number of factors, including previous intensive agricultural use of UK land which has led to a loss of biodiversity with food production often being rewarded financially far greater than when land is used for carbon-reducing and ecological purposes, hence agriculture often takes priority when land use decisions are made privately for green space. The CCC also raises the issue that food and biodegradable waste is being sent to landfill unnecessarily and this must stop as it’s a major issue that is largely preventable. Another issue raised is how whilst biomass is effectively carbon-neutral, it still emits a lot of CO2 and could arguably be put to better use in construction rather than using concrete (of which the manufacturing process produces a lot of CO2). To read the full article and see the reports, click here.
