Tackle UK carbon emissions by working with nature, government urged

Restoring nature needs to be given top priority,' says Craig Bennett, Wildlife Trusts CEO

Restoring the natural environment could absorb as much as a third of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, making the government's target of net zero emissions by 2050 much easier to meet, according to green campaigners.

Returning degraded peatland and bog to its natural state, cultivating marine meadows of seagrass, restoring salt marshes and wetlands, and taking some grasslands out of cultivation, as well as planting more trees, all contribute to creating carbon sinks, which absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere.