As part of plans to ‘restore nature and build back greener from the pandemic’ Environment Secretary George Eustice has announced that further details will be announced about the Government’s Peat Action Plan, including banning the sale of peat to the public from 2024, subject to consultation further this year.
‘As England’s largest carbon store on land, peatlands play a vital role in trapping carbon, helping to control flooding and encouraging plants and vegetation that act as homes for wildlife, but when damaged, for example when mined for compost, they can end up emitting their carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,’ said Defra. ‘A new Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme will support the restoration of 35,000 hectares of degraded peatland in England, backed by over £50 million between 2021 and 2025.’
Prof Dave Goulson, from the University of Sussex, commented, “The [peat compost] ban must be meaningful and include the horticulture industry, and the importation of peat in potted plants. Anything less looks like greenwashing. Globally, peatlands store half a trillion tonnes of carbon, twice as much as the world’s forests. Unearthing this precious store of carbon is a needless ecological disaster.”
Picture caption: Retail sales of peat are to be banned from the end of the current parliament