What is the GHG emissions reductions potential from different land-based interventions per unit area per year, how will natural carbon sources and sinks evolve in the future, and what are their timeframes for delivery from implementation? For example, what levels of emissions reductions can be achieved by actions within the new Environmental Land Management Scheme’s outcomes framework, and from forestry, and over what time frames are these delivered?
Background
To limit future warming requires rapid reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving net zero by 2050, as required by UK legislation. Climate mitigation is led in government by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). But Defra is responsible for efforts to reduce GHG emissions from four sectors: agriculture, waste and wastewater, land-use, and fluorinated gases (F-gases). Defra also has responsibility to promote forestry, which acts as a carbon sink. Together, the four Defra sectors represent 15% of the total net UK GHGs, with agriculture being the biggest contributor (about 10% of UK emissions).
Defra has research interests in reduction of emissions, the removal of GHG from the atmosphere, and in understanding the impacts of mitigation activities on other environmental outcomes.
Next steps
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Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Topics
Related UKRI funded projects
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Greenhouse Gas Removal in the Land Sector - Addressing the Gaps (GGRiLS - Gaps)
Greenhouse Gas Removal in the Land Sector - Addressing the Gaps (GGRiLS - Gaps) is a Topic-specific proposal under the GGR programme. The Paris agreement commits countries to limit climate warming to "well below 2 d...
Funded by: NERC
Why might this be relevant?
The project specifically addresses the question by quantifying the emissions reduction gap in the land sector and analyzing the potential contribution of different interventions.
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Meeting the Paris Agreement on Climate: Exploiting Earth System Models to determine the role of future land-use change
This Fellowship will exploit the next generation of climate models to make the UK's first assessment of the potential for land-use change policy (e.g., reduced deforestation and increased afforestation) to help society m...
Funded by: NERC
Why might this be relevant?
The project aims to assess the potential for land-use change to help meet climate targets, which directly relates to the question about GHG emissions reductions and future carbon sources and sinks.
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A practical tool and robust framework for evaluating greenhouse gas emissions from land-based activities
Limiting the impacts of climate change will require concerted action across all sectors. Emission reduction polices have previously focussed on fossil fuels, as the major cause of global warming, but the scale of the cha...
Funded by: UKRI
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on evaluating greenhouse gas emissions from land-based activities, which partially addresses the question, but does not specifically mention the timeframes for delivery or the Environmental Land Management Scheme's outcomes framework.