Clause 25
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
7:15 pm
David Maclean (Penrith and The Border, Conservative)
Where I am coming from is my belief that carbon sinks have a vital role to play in the United Kingdom, and certainly internationally. This is not the point at which we should talk about the vital role that carbon sinks can play in the rain forest, but I hope that the Government will encourage companies to invest heavily in them. However, in the United Kingdom, too, there is a great role for carbon sinks in our forests, peat lands and bogs. I do not want them discredited because of some inappropriate carbon-sink trading that might be going on, or some inappropriate or dodgy dealing that does not stack up.
As I read about carbon sinks, discovering the wonderful role that our forests and peat lands could perform, I came across more and more stuff on the internet from environmental groups that had been rubbishing carbon sinks on the basis that the schemes could be a bit dodgy or the solution was not permanent. The groups suggested that if the world warms up, our forests in this country could get warmer and that rather than our peat bogs and carbon sinks retaining carbon, they could be releasing it, so let us not touch them. Some of the criticism had a rather puritanical and misguided streak, saying, “Yes, carbon sinks may be good, but they do not cause enough pain, and what we really ought to be doing in the United Kingdom is making sure that we are closing down industry and making people and businesses suffer, so let us not pay attention to the trees and the forests and the land that we have and let us not exploit it to the full.” That is barking. If we are to be successful in meeting our climate change targets and are to do genuine good, yes, we must have targets for industry to reduce the amount of carbon emissions and for the rest of us to drive less or to have a cleaner or lower carbon lifestyle. However, for goodness’ sake, let us exploit some of the things that we have in this country and expand them.
Carbon dioxide emissions from soils totalled 13.69 million tonnes in 2005. By comparison, carbon dioxide emissions from domestic aviation were 2.47 million tonnes. There used to be an old gardener on the television years ago—was he a Yorkshire gardener?—who said, “The answer lies in the soil.” The answer in some part does lie in the soil. If we maintain it and keep it properly, we will be locking carbon in for evermore. All the peat lands in England and Wales would absorb around 41,000 tonnes of carbon a year if they were kept in a pristine condition. However, they could emit up to 381,000 tonnes of carbon a year if they were damaged by practices such as excessive burning, drainage and overgrazing. The restoration and enhancement of peat lands could save 400,000 tonnes a year, which is the equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1.1 billion car miles or 84,000 family-sized cars. In addition to that, not only do we lock in the carbon, but we would safeguard the habitats of 5,000 different species of plants and animals.
I am sure, Mr. Cook, that it will be at the forefront of your mind that Natural England held a conference headlined “Better Bogs Create Carbon Sinks”. The “better bogs” conference, which was officially entitled “Moors for the Future”, in the Peak district, said:
“We must protect and enhance our upland peat bogs—they are the UK’s most important and vulnerable carbon store.”
That was the message from Natural England. Sir Martin Doughty, the chair of Natural England, said:
“Evidence shows that the degradation of soils through over-grazing, fires, drainage and erosion is releasing five times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year than from all domestic flights in the UK.”
Peat soils contain a huge amount of carbon. If it is locked in, it is okay, but if there is degradation and the peat land is not looked after properly, it becomes a major source of emissions.
I see the Minister nodding—I have rabbited on about so many different things that he was bound to have nodded at something. If the Government accept the analysis that our carbon sinks are legitimate and good, and that we ought to enhance them, I do not want anyone rubbishing them in the next few years and deterring businesses from investing in them. I am happy to have businesses in my constituency that might be emitting carbon doing a carbon-trading deal and investing in peat bogs, new forest—or woodlands—and in trees that, hopefully, will not catch fire accidentally or be cut down. We must distinguish between that sort of forestry and planting trees for 20 or 30 years that might soak up carbon while they are growing, but which are then cut down regularly. That is not what I have in mind.
The only way in which we can make the approach completely legitimate and stop some of the misguided environmental groups from attacking our carbon sinks and the planting of trees is to make sure that the Committee on Climate Change has the role of approving carbon sinks. It is no good me or anyone else coming along and saying, “I am just going to have a carbon sink there. I am investing in this and buying a bit of hillside, which has good grouse shooting and a lot of peat. I am therefore doing my bit as a carbon sink, so can I please have that accredited against me?”
If we are to have legitimate and kosher carbon sinks, the Committee on Climate Change should accredit them or have an assessment system for saying, “Yes, this is a good carbon sink and, as far as we can say, it has the possibility of remaining permanent, so Natural England and others can put conditions on it to make sure that the peat is not eroded and not dug up, drained and released.” We want a legitimate verification system that keeps our carbon sinks as a valuable resource for reducing carbon and locking it in, and that does not allow people to discredit the whole concept.
I conclude with those words because I am worried that some people want to discredit the concept of carbon sinks for their own ends. Yes, the UK should be doing a lot. Yes, our industry should be producing less carbon, but let us not rubbish carbon sinks as a natural and perfectly acceptable form of locking in carbon that should be expanded and increased, and that should not only help British industry, but contribute to the world’s reduction of carbon in the atmosphere.