Nitrogen Reduction, Recycling and Reuse (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Earl Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Grand Committee

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, I apologise for speaking in the gap on this important report. I, too, thank the committee, the clerks and our policy analyst.

For too long, nitrogen has remained the invisible pollutant, a silent driver of environmental degradation. While nitrogen is fundamental to life and food production, our mismanagement has transferred it into the nitrogen octopus, as one of our witnesses put it, whose damaging tentacles harm our air, soil and water. It is clearly time for a more innovative approach so we can escape the nitrogen paradox. Nitrogen is essential for life, yet it is also a super-pollutant, driving damage to human health, biodiversity loss, river pollution and climate change. In agriculture, nitrogen losses account for nearly two-thirds of water pollution, and three-quarters of the emissions of nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas almost 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. This is not just an environmental crisis; it is an economic one as well. As we have heard, we waste some £420 million of fertiliser every year, while the total cost of nitrogen mismanagement has very serious economic costs and consequences for human health.

We offer the Government a transformative approach, moving us away from excess use and degradation towards a circular economy, whereby nitrogen is valued rather than wasted. Simple ideas, such as a regional nitrogen-spreading weather forecast, letting farmers know when and when not to spread fertiliser to reduce run-off, could produce tangible benefits—both financial savings and environmental gains. We must also recover nitrogen from sewage sludge, food waste and animal manure.

Agricultural nitrogen use efficiency is low, dropping to 11% in some cases, depending on circumstances. This is a resource that farmers are wasting. I welcome the Government’s initial response and recent progress, including doubling the Environment Agency’s farm inspections to 6,000 per year by 2029. I also welcome the consultation on extending environmental permitting to intensive beef and dairy units, and including nutrient circularity in the forthcoming circular economy strategy. However, the Government’s response lacks the urgency and innovation needed to meet our statutory obligations.

We are off-track on nitrogen pollution goals and a piecemeal approach will not suffice. More must be done. Critically, the Government rejected our core recommendation for a holistic national nitrogen strategy, claiming not to see the value in it. I ask the Minister to reconsider. Nitrogen moves fluidly between air, land and water. Treating these in departmental silos is exactly why we have failed to treat this problem to date. We need an integrated policy, connecting transport and the water industry under one coherent policy framework. The nitrogen octopus travels freely through our environment, causing damage, while policy remains contained within its silos.

Central to this must be a UK nitrogen balance sheet, which is another of our core recommendations. As we have heard, Scotland has acted, mapping flows across its economies to identify where interventions have the greatest impact. Without a balance sheet, policy efforts are like managing the national budget without a balance of payments. Its value is clear and data is essential for prioritising actions, so I ask the Minister to monitor the Scottish experience and to look firmly at the need to bring in the balance sheet.