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Agricultural land in England is at risk of being forested over by big conglomerates under the guise of combating climate change, the UK’s farming minister has warned.
Mark Spencer told the Financial Times in an interview that the UK had to take care not to let too much farmland be turned over to tree planting and other carbon offsetting schemes for the sake of corporate “greenwashing”.
“We need to be wary of what we’re using land for and we can’t allow that sort of greenwashing,” said Spencer. “If we’re not careful Shell and British Airways will buy all the land in England and just plant trees on it to offset their carbon [emissions].”
Land agents have seen an increase in buyers looking for land for rewilding, tree planting and other environmental schemes, as companies race to meet net zero emissions targets and reduce their emissions by purchasing carbon “offsets”.
Each offset — or credit — represents a tonne of carbon dioxide emissions avoided or removed from the atmosphere, and are acquired through investments in environmental restoration and protection.
Oil and gas companies, airlines and car manufacturers are among the world’s biggest users of offsets.
But the carbon offset market is under increased scrutiny, with climate activists and researchers arguing that counting systems are not accurate enough, and that many projects do not remove carbon from the atmosphere as effectively or for as long as they claim to.
“Clearly, that’s not where we want to end up. That’s not the model that we’ve created,” Spencer said, referring to the sale of agricultural land for carbon offsetting schemes. He added that the government had the levers to ensure the system was not exploited.
In March, the government published a Nature Markets framework, announcing it wanted to scale up the flow of private finance to nature, while ensuring “markets operate with integrity and avoid adverse effects”.
In order to meet its net zero targets, the government’s climate advisers said the UK would need to increase its forest cover from 13 to 17 per cent by 2050.
Industry and environmental groups have warned that farmers, who are struggling with soaring input costs and operating on wafer-thin margins, could be tempted to sell their land instead of growing food.
Tom Bradshaw, the National Farmers’ Union deputy president, aid: “We must ensure that farmland isn’t taken permanently out of production and continues to deliver food, fibre and energy for the nation.”
A report by the environmental think-tank Green Alliance earlier this year said the phaseout of the subsidies farmers received under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy could lead to farm insolvencies, and the consolidation of smaller farms.
Hill farm plots and bare agricultural land in Wales and Scotland have already been sold for tree planting schemes.
Last year, the Welsh Affairs Committee called on the Welsh and UK governments for greater transparency and regulation of the sale of viable farmland for carbon offsetting, warning that farmers were being priced out.
Average arable land values in England and Wales increased 6.4 per cent to £9,517 an acre in the year to June, according to Carter Jonas. The supply of new farmland is at a historic low — 29 per cent below the ten-year average in the three months to June, the estate agent said.
Andrew Chandler, partner at Carter Jonas, said it was “early days for an emerging market” but that the demand from buyers was there.
British Airways said it had never purchased land to plant trees in order to offset its emissions and that the carbon offsetting projects it invests in are high quality and fully verified.
A spokesperson for Shell said that “carbon credits are an important method of helping compensate for carbon emissions that come from the production of many things and their use, including by Mr Spencer,” adding that the company had “no intention of doing what he suggests”.
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