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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using grass pasture for carbon storage.

Defra is informed by work in its advisory bodies on this topic.

Natural England produced an assessment of carbon storage by different habitats in 2021 and found that old species-rich grasslands with minimal inputs can store significant amounts of carbon. There are many factors that influence the amount of carbon storage including historical management, grassland types, soil types and climate. In view of ongoing uncertainties, Defra is funding ongoing research on carbon in grasslands within the Nature Returns programme (https://www.kew.org/science/nature-returns).

The role of grazing and fertiliser inputs also needs to be taken into account in assessing the value of pasture as carbon stores. The most recent report of the Climate Change Committee (The Seventh Carbon Budget Advice for the UK Government, 2025) addressed this. It reports that ‘nearly two-thirds (63%) of agricultural emissions (and all agricultural methane emissions) in 2022 were directly emitted from livestock, with 49% from the digestive process (enteric fermentation) of cattle and sheep and 14% from the management of livestock waste and manure. Agricultural soils, mainly from the application of organic and chemical fertiliser onto grassland and cropland, accounted for a further 24%’.

References & Reports

Natural England (2021) Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Habitat 2021 (NERR094)

https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/5419124441481216

Climate Change Committee (2025). The Seventh Carbon Budget. Advice for the UK Government

https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/The-Seventh-Carbon-Budget.pdf