Farming: Making a level playing field for net zero

Policy intervention will be needed to ensure carbon markets and other developments leading to major changes in land use across Scotland make a positive contribution towards a fair transition to net zero.

That was the finding of a new report focusing on the economic and legal aspects of harnessing the country’s natural capital drawn up for the Scottish Land Commission (SLC).

And it also concluded that Scotland could not afford to allow a small number of actors to make the key decisions about natural capital which the report said would affect everyone in the country for decades to come.

Natural capital is the stocks of natural assets, including geology, soil, air, water, plants and animals. SLC said a natural capital approach helped understand the role of the natural environment, alongside its intrinsic value, as an asset that underpinned and enhanced the economy and society.

The report, written by Economics Professor, Sir Dieter Helm CBE of Oxford University, and University of Glasgow School of Law’s Dr Jill Robbie and Dr Giedre Jokubauskaite explored how to help manage Scotland’s growing natural capital dilemma, as investor interest in acquiring land for carbon offsetting continued to grow and was aimed at providing background information for the national debate on the issue which is being monitored by the SLC.

“Land plays a role in every aspect of everyday Scotland and part of our role is to stimulate and inform discussion on how we make the most of it,” said SLC chief executive, Hamish Trench.