To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental impact of the drying of peatlands in the UK.
Answered on
5 November 2019
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Government recognises that healthy wet peatlands have many positive environmental benefits, including flood mitigation, terrestrial carbon storage for mitigating climate change, providing habitat for rare wildlife and water purification and regulation.
The BEIS Emissions Inventory for UK Peatlands, published in April this year, estimates that annual greenhouse gas emissions from degraded (including drained) peatlands in England are approximately 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e).