Radical changes in the use of farmland are needed if the UK is to become carbon neutral by 2050, according to an independent body.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is advising the government how to reach its target.

The CCC says a fifth of agricultural land should be switched to a usage which reduces or stores carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas that traps heat.

Image: The committee has warned UK farmland use must change

Image: Consumers will have to cut their consumption of beef and lamb

The body's advice includes planting a million trees a year; encouraging low carbon farming such as changing the feed for cattle; restoring peatland so it can store carbon and aiming for a 20% reduction per person in consumption of beef and lamb.

Chris Stark, the committee's chief executive, said: "One of the really important messages is that farmers are part of the solution so we need to stop thinking about farmers being against the climate and think of them as the stewards of the land."


But changes in farming land use would be voluntary and come at a cost to farmers - a cost which the CCC thinks should be met in part by big emitters.

Mr Stark said: "Farmers have to be recompensed - and what we're recommending is a set of changes that would allow those farmers to make that transition and be funded to do so.

"Importantly we're recommending there should be a levy on the fossil fuel suppliers that would allow farmers to be paid to plant trees and store carbon in the future.

"That's something we haven't got at the moment and it's a part of the conundrum of how we pay overall for the big changes in land and agriculture that we'll need to get to net zero in the UK."

And its not just farmers who are being encouraged to rethink the use of their land.

Image: The Woodmeadow Trust has turned turned a barley field into a mix of woodland and meadow

Image: Rosalind Forbes Adam would like to see rewilding take place across the UK

The Woodmeadow Trust in North Yorkshire told us they would like to see rewilding - returning land to its natural state - taken up all over the country.

The trust has turned a 25-acre barley field into a blend of woodland and meadow to encourage biodiversity and help tackle the climate crisis.

Woodmeadow Trust founder Rosalind Forbes Adam said: "We feel it's really important to make the best use possible for carbon sequestration and bio diversity and have a bit of a win win so that's what we've been going for here.

"It's quite small scale but as an exemplar site we feel it's doing really well."