Lords Committee to hear evidence from land managers and public delivery bodies as part of inquiry into nature-based solutions for climate change

The Committee will aim to understand what factors influence landowners and land managers when it comes to engaging with nature-based solutions. The Committee will also look at the public delivery bodies that encourage the uptake of nature-based solutions, and whether the mechanisms they use could be improved. Representatives from Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the Forestry Commission will give evidence. 

The Committee will ask about landholder organisations’ net zero ambitions and the role planned for nature-based solutions. The Committee will also ask about the feasibility of Government targets for changing land use as part of the effort to achieve net-zero by 2050, and the trade-offs this may entail.  They will seek to understand how nature-based solutions are supported, and whether the schemes to support them need to be improved.   

The session will take place at 10am on Tuesday 26 October in Committee Room 4 and will be available to watch live or on demand at Parliament TV.  

Giving evidence will be: 

10:00am  

• Harry Greenfield, Senior Land Policy Advisor at Country Land and Business Association (CLA) 
• Professor Mark Reed, Professor in Rural Entrepreneurship at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) 
• Professor Rosemary Hails, Director of Science and Nature at The National Trust 

11:00am  

• Dr Mike Morecroft, Principal Specialist, Climate Change at Natural England 
• Melissa Swartz, Catchment Funding Senior Advisor at Environment Agency 
• Dr Richard Greenhous, Director of Forest Services at Forestry Commission 

Possible questions include: 

• What role are nature-based solutions intended to play within the net zero plans of different landholding organisations, and how will they be implemented at the required scale? 
• Are the ambitions in the Government’s net zero and nature recovery policies for land use change realistic? 
• What are the major barriers or concerns that are preventing land managers and other stakeholders from deploying nature-based solutions, and how could these be addressed? 
• Which government plans, policies and strategies are most relevant to supporting nature-based solution, and could they be better coordinated? 
• What major uncertainties remain about carbon sequestration and storage by nature-based solutions in England, and what work is being done to address these uncertainties? 
• Some nature-based solutions projects may not be viable unless co-benefits are suitably captured in their valuation. How should future projects and funding schemes take these co-benefits into account?