Natural Capital Committee Nature Based Interventions Report: summary and opportunities

The Natural Capital Committee (NCC) is an independent advisory committee to central government that provides advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital – that is, our natural assets including forests, rivers, land, minerals and oceans.

The committee will focus primarily on helping the government develop its 25-year environment plan and has recently published its Nature Based Interventions report. Below is a summary of this report’s findings and recommendations.

What does the NCC’s Nature Based Interventions report recommend?

The report recommends that the government’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions target should be viewed in the broader context of the ten 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP) goals, noting that mitigating and adapting to climate change is goal seven.

The Environment Bill and Agriculture Bill will provide the main delivery framework for the 25 YEP.

It raises the idea ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’ should be replaced with ‘Environmental Net Gain,’ the latter being a wider concept which involves natural assets and the services and benefits they bring to society. Delivery of net zero will become incredibly difficult, if not impossible, without environmental net gain – it is the only approach that considers the impact on the terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including biocarbon stocks.

‘Nature based interventions’ should be used to deliver carbon reductions at a fraction of the cost of engineered solutions, but these should be used alongside a holistic strategy to reach net zero, which include changes in energy, transport, housing, infrastructure, industry, and land and sea use. A holistic approach will ensure natural capital is delivered in a coordinated way, otherwise focusing on only one objective may be to the detriment of other objectives (for example, a narrow focus on tree cover or growing biofuel may be to the detriment of delivering and restoring biodiversity).

The report also recommends that the government should prioritise evaluating and undertaking spatial planning for the following five ‘nature based interventions’:

i) maintaining and increasing tree cover,
ii) maintaining and increasing soil carbon (including peatland restoration),
iii) improving wildlife / biodiversity,
iv) managing freshwaters and wetlands; and
v) sea use changes.

More data is needed to compile a census of the stock of natural capital assets so as to fully understand the baseline situation and to establish which interventions are likely to be the most effective.

A natural capital approach needs to be embedded at the heart of all government decision making (planning, infrastructure decisions and carbon net zero efforts). Land use change will form an important element of the holistic strategy to deliver net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.

Nature based interventions – land use changes

Tree Cover
Improving the management of existing woodlands and increasing tree cover in the UK is a key objective of the 25 YEP (with 11 million new trees across the country), as tree cover acts as a significant carbon sink. However, this needs to carefully consider all of the benefits and trade-offs. There is a need to plant the ‘right tree in the right place at the right time for the right reason.’ For example, the planting up of ancient woodlands with conifers has the potential to result in more harm than good.

Concepts which are being promoted include agroforestry initiatives and the planting up of bioenergy crops (of the right types in the right places) then using these for BECCS (bioenergy and carbon capture and storage). Significant emphasis is placed on bioenergy crops for CCS (carbon capture and storage). This is considered to be an effective strategy to help to get to 2050 net zero targets as it has the potential to result in negative emissions whilst providing electricity, heat and fuel.

The 2020 budget announced a £640m ‘nature for climate’ fund which should help to fund tree planting and peatland restoration interventions among other things. There may be opportunities for landowners to benefit from some of this funding.

Soil carbon
Maintaining and increasing soil carbon (particularly through the restoration of upland and lowland peatlands) forms an important part of the overall strategy. Soils account for 94.2% of total biocarbon stocks so this is a particularly important intervention.

Biodiversity
Improving biodiversity is an important facet of the overall climate strategy. The focus should not only be on carbon reduction; biodiversity provides important ecosystem functions (for example genetically rich ecosystems have better long-term resilience and adaptability). Maintaining existing sites, providing new wildlife habitats (including as part of new environmental land management schemes) and delivering biodiversity net gain through developments will all form part of the strategy.

Managing freshwater and wetlands
The creation and restoration of freshwater habitats bring a multitude of natural capital benefits, including alleviation of flooding, thriving wildlife, water regulation, recreation and wellbeing and nutrient cycling.

Marine ecosystems
Marine ecosystems are important for climate regulation and are responsible for an estimated 55% of the world’s biologically sequestered carbon.

Benefits from better management of marine natural capital include biodiversity, recreation and wellbeing, carbon storage and sequestration, food production, waste management, flood water storage and protection from extreme weather events.

Main recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change’s land use report

The NCC also supports the recommendations set out the Committee on Climate Change’s land use report as part of delivering the 25 YEP. These recommendations include:

• Low-carbon farming practices
• Afforestation and agro-forestry (including increasing UK forestry cover from 13% to at least 17% by 2050 by planting around 30,000 ha or more of sustainably managed broadleaf and conifer woodland each year)
• Restoration of peatlands – restoring at least 50% of upland peat and 25% of lowland peat would reduce peatland emissions by 5 MtCO2e by 2050, while allowing food production to continue on the most productive land
• Production of bioenergy crops – expanding the growing of bioenergy crops by around 23,000 ha each year would deliver 2 MtCO2e emissions savings in the land sector and an extra 11 MtCO2e from the harvested biomass (e.g. when used with CCS), although managing the risks of negative impacts of these crops will also need to be managed
• Reducing consumption of the most carbon-intensive foods

How we can help you get involved

Carter Jonas is well placed to offer a wide range of services to clients and landowners who will become involved in delivering the land use interventions discussed above.

These include:

RURAL
Brokering deals between developers and corporate clients and Landowners/farmers delivering ecological services

• Acquisition and management of land for afforestation schemes, bioenergy production, soil restoration or wetland habitats
• Government payment schemes
• Carbon offsetting initiatives
• Advice to clients and delivering biodiversity enhancement schemes (whether as part of Environmental Land Management schemes or offsite biodiversity net gain delivery linked to developments)

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ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

• Advice on bioenergy and BECCS schemes, carbon credits and delivery of other schemes relevant to low carbon energy / delivery of 25 YEP

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MAPPING AND GEOSPATIAL

• Site identification and mapping for land use interventions and biodiversity net gain projects
• Baseline Biodiversity Net Gain Calculations

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PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Appraisals of sites and identification of suitable areas for biodiversity net gain.
• Advice on biodiversity net gain and planning policy.
• Working alongside our Rural division to partner developers and landowners who require off-site biodiversity net gain provision.

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