From peatland ‘timebombs’ to overheating homes: What we must do to take action on the climate crisis

Woeful. Much too slow. Not hitting the mark. That’s how the UK’s independent climate advisers have described efforts to tackle the climate crisis in their last major assessment before Cop26, a crucial global summit to be hosted in six months.

Ministers are failing to make progress in slashing emissions across almost all sectors of the economy, according to two reports released by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) on Thursday. The findings suggest they are also failing to heed warnings to do more to prepare for escalating climate impacts, which range from hotter and drier summers to more unpredictable storms.

To turn things around, the UK needs to take urgent action to both cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to changing climate conditions, the advisers say.

In a detailed address to the government, they set out more than 200 actions for how the UK can get back on track for its journey to net-zero emissions by 2050. Below, The Independent explores some of the key recommendations.

Degraded peatlands: ‘Sitting on a timebomb’

Peatlands have been described as “superheroes of the natural world” for their ability to store vast amounts of carbon and support wildlife diversity.

However, centuries of burning, overgrazing and over-draining have left the country’s peatlands in a poor state, causing them to release more CO2 into the atmosphere than they are able to absorb. Estimates suggest that the UK’s degraded peatlands account for around 5 per cent of the country’s total emissions.

Chris Stark, the chief executive of the CCC, warned that the UK’s degraded peatlands could derail efforts to reach net-zero by 2050 without urgent action.

“Peatlands hold 25 times more carbon than the UK emits nationally,” he said. “If they’re not restored, we will not meet net-zero – and we could even be sitting on a timebomb of emissions escaping from degraded peatland.”

The government has pledged to restore 32,700 hectares of peatland every year by 2025. But the CCC says the area of land restored should be more than double that – around 67,000 hectares a year – if the country is to meet its climate goals.

The government should also do more to stop people from using peat-based compost in their gardens, the advisers said.

“We’ve got some measures coming in on the sale of peat and banning horticultural use – but it’s much too slow, it needs to happen now,” said Baroness Brown of Cambridge, the chair of the CCC’s adaptation committee.

She added that the government must bring in a ban on rotational peatland burning. The UK announced a ban on peatland burning in certain sites this year, but exemptions to the ban mean it only applies to 9 per cent of England’s peatlands, campaigners previously told The Independent.

Overheating homes: ‘Nothing has happened’

Britain’s overheating and leaky homes also need an urgent overhaul if the UK is to cope with rising climate impacts, the advisers warned.

A separate CCC assessment released earlier this month found that more than half a million new, non-heat resilient homes have been built across the country in the last five years.

Baroness Brown said on Tuesday that the move to build more non-heat resilient homes demonstrated that ministers weren’t heeding warnings on the risks posed by overheating as UK summer temperatures continue to climb.

“It’s something we’ve repeatedly flagged up since the CCC was formed over 12 years ago ... but nothing has happened yet,” she said.

“Those new homes are now locked into high retrofit costs, which are four to five times the cost it would have been to address overheating at the time that they were built.”

Retrofitting homes could help to tackle the cause of the crisis while helping people cope with rising climate impacts. Britain’s homes account for around a fifth of the country’s total CO2 emissions. Making homes more energy-efficient is one of the key actions that must be taken if the UK is to reach its target of net-zero emissions by 2050, the CCC says.

open image in gallery

Public engagement: ‘People don’t know they’re at risk’

Getting the public more involved in efforts to tackle the climate crisis, through public information campaigns and engagement at a local level, could help to “underpin success on cutting emissions and on adapting to climate change”, said Mr Stark.

He pointed to the findings of the UK’s Climate Assembly, a first-of-its-kind project that asked the public its opinion on how the country should reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Mr Stark, who was one of the expert leads for the project, said the assembly showed that people broadly support tougher climate measures when they have had a chance to listen to information on why a change is needed.

Better public engagement will also be key for helping people understand the heightened risks they face from extreme weather, said Kathryn Brown, the head of adaptation at the CCC.

“Half of people don’t know they’re at flood risk,” she said. “Most people don’t know what they can do to reduce the risks of overheating. There are lots of low-cost options people can do, but they don’t even know they’re at risk.

“A promotional campaign on adaptation is really urgently needed, and we want to see that brought together with [a campaign] on net zero as well.”