Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the Environmental Land Management schemes on greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector; and what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the objectives of those schemes with the UK's net zero target.

Defra is taking action to tackle climate change, in line with our net zero target, by making consistent contributions towards reducing emissions from agriculture and agricultural land and increasing the amount of carbon that is sequestered and stored. All three of our Environmental Land Management schemes will pay farmers to provide agreed environmental outcomes, including actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The soil standards recently announced as part of the first year roll out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive will play a part in this.

Initial projections of the SFI arable/horticultural soil and improved grassland soil standards estimate average potential carbon savings of up to 0.8 megatons of CO2 equivalent in England annually over the CB6 period (the sixth carbon budget period under the Climate Change Act, from 2033 to 2037). These savings are roughly equivalent to a total of up to 400,000 cars off the road per year over the CB6 period (based on annual emissions by an average car on the road in 2019). Improving soil health is an important potential mechanism to sequester more carbon, but we know that we must do more to deliver our Net Zero ambitions.

We are continuing to consider a wide range of measures for how to reduce emissions from agriculture and increase the amount of carbon captured by the land, as we roll out the Environmental Land Management schemes.

A more detailed overview of our departmental plans to help the UK meet its climate targets will be set out in the Net Zero Strategy, to be published ahead of COP26.