North West net zero ambitions boosted thanks to peatland partnership

North West net zero ambitions boosted thanks to peatland partnership - National Trust

diggers on peatland — Creating peat bunds on Armboth Hag, Cumbria © Cumbria Wildlife Trust Sean Prokopiw

A new £2.4m peatland partnership will see heavily-degraded peat bogs restored across Lancashire and Cumbria, creating healthier habitats in the north of England and bringing the UK closer to its 2050 Net Zero goal.

Coordinated by the National Trust, a partnership of landowners, charities and conservation organisations including Cumbria Wildlife Trust, the Forest of Bowland AONB, and United Utilities will restore 1,063 hectares (2,626 acres) of degraded peat at 10 sites in the North West.

It is one of the latest additions to the Great North Bog, a £9.3m peatland restoration initiative developed by the North Pennines AONB Partnership, the Yorkshire Peat Partnership and the Moors for the Future Partnership. The Great North Bog is a landscape-scale approach to upland peatland restoration and conservation across nearly 700,000 hectares (1,729,737 acres) of peatland soils in the Protected Landscapes of northern England, stretching from the Peak District to Northumberland.

With funding from Natural England’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, this new partnership will restore some of the most damaged upland peat sites in the North West and prevent an estimated 69,693 tonnes of greenhouse gas being released into the atmosphere by 2050.

Nearly all (92 per cent) of England’s upland peatlands are in the north of England, storing 400 million tonnes of carbon. Healthy peatlands sequester carbon and play a vital role in tackling the climate crisis, but degraded peat emits carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

Mike Innerdale, regional director – North region at the National Trust, said: “We know that restoring degraded upland peat in the North of England is absolutely key to reaching the government’s Net Zero goal. The Great North Bog partnership is at the heart of this, with a coalition of landowners, commoners, conservation organisations and communities coming together to bring their expertise and resource to tackle this long-overdue challenge and address the climate crisis.”