Government advisors on the Committee on Climate Change have urged the new Conservative government to take urgent action to avoid increasing costs and impacts of climate change in the UK.

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• Extend funding for low-carbon electricity generation to 2025, to support investment and innovation and to continue cutting costs;
• Agree an action plan that delivers low-carbon heat and energy efficiency to allow homes to be heated for less while addressing the risks from rising temperatures and flooding;
• Continue support for efficient, low-emission vehicles to save drivers money;
• Develop new infrastructure that helps to combat climate change and is resilient to its impacts;
• Act to preserve the fertility and organic content of soils and counter the decline in productive farmland.

Commenting on Tuesday, CCC chair Lord Deben said, “This Government has a unique opportunity to shape climate policy through the 2020s. It must act now to set out how it plans to keep the UK on track. Acting early will help to reduce costs to households, business and the Exchequer. It will improve people’s health and wellbeing and create opportunities for business in manufacturing and in the service sector.”

Renewables

CCC’s recommendations were welcomed by the farming community and renewables industry on Tuesday. NFU Vice President Guy Smith said, “The Committee’s view on renewable energy is pretty clear – we need stable policies to incentivise land-based clean technologies such as wind, solar and biogas, otherwise Britain will not achieve its future climate change targets.”
 
He added, “Small-scale renewables don’t just produce energy, they’re an essential way for Britain’s farmers to earn a reliable income in a time of volatile food prices, and so keep farming and the wider rural economy afloat.”
 
James Court, of the Renewable Energy Association, added, “The heating sector is essential for preventing climate change, as 47% of all UK energy is used for heating, which is responsible for a third of the UK’s carbon emissions. Yet the Renewable Heat Incentive is only confirmed to 2020, but doesn’t have a budget for 2016-2020.

“Emissions in the transport sector rose by 1% last year, despite falls in new car emissions and electric car sales quadrupling. The UK government has for too long avoided tackling the carbon emissions of the transport sector.”

soils

Reacting to the CCC’s demand for action to bolster soil health, NFU’s Guy Smith claimed that “Through a combination of regulation (CAP), Countryside Stewardships and voluntary initiatives the proportion of soil protected through measures such as cover crops, min tillage, direct drilling and longer rotations continues to increase.”

He said the CCC report highlighted the need to retain funding for voluntary initiatives such as Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) “to incentivise and support farmers who want to be leaders in protecting soils.”
 
However, there is a growing belief that more stringent measures need to be taken; on Tuesday, Trevor Mansfield, head of policy at the Soil Association, said, “For the first time, this report highlights the critical red list status of British soils, threatening our climate and future food production.”

The CCC report said that the rate of soil loss in parts of the country is "not sustainable" and could endanger the profitability of farming in parts of East Anglia. In October, researchers from the University of Sheffield warned that UK soils may only have 100 harvests left in them, due to unsustainable practices. 

Yet, the UK government’s track record on soil protection has been patchy. The government played a key role in last year’s loss of the draft EU Soils Directive, which would have accorded the bloc’s soils the same protections enjoyed by other non-renewable resources. A blocking minority of states - including the UK - ensured that the directive was stalled in its draft form for eight years, supported by the NFU, who asserted that there is “No need for additional legislation in this area.”

Last month, the Soil Association’s chief executive, Helen Browning wrote to the government to demand that concrete measures be put in place to protect soil health. The organic organisation challenged the UK  government to commit to a target of increasing soil organic matter in arable and horticultural soils by 20% by 2035.

On Tuesday, Trevor Mansfield said, “We are continuing to pioneer a  diverse programme of Field Labs, working with farmers and growers across the UK on practical measures to protect and improve soil condition, for example using green manures to build soil organic matter and evaluating the practical value of different soil tests.”

He added, “The Committee is also right to raise the risks posed by the increasing area of land used to grow maize.   Estimates suggest that during the storms and heavy rainfall in the winter of 2013/14, (the sort of extreme weather event that is predicted to increase under climate change scenarios) every 10 hectare block of damaged land under maize stubble produced the equivalent of 15 Olympic swimming pools (more than 375 million litres) of additional runoff.”