Question reference: S6W-02240
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 17 August 2021
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Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 16 September 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of recommendation 15 in the report, Farming for 1.5C: From here to 2045, which states that "The carbon in Scotland’s soils should not be traded until further notice".
Answer
The main regulated, compulsory carbon pricing market in the UK is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Agriculture and land-use emissions are not covered by the current scope of the UK ETS. The carbon in Scotland’s deep peat soils is however being traded through the peatland code. This is a voluntary certification mechanism which provides assurances to carbon market buyers that the climate benefits from restoring peat are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.
Although there is no soil carbon code in place at present, there is UK-wide interest in developing a soil carbon code. This has been most recently addressed by a UK Soil Association conference on 14th July 2021 but this has not yet been translated into a co-ordinated programme of work.