The Committee on Climate Change says cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 is necessary, affordable and desirable. Here are some of the actions needed to make that happen:

• Petrol and diesel cars banned from sale ideally by 2030 and 2035 at the latest.

• Quadrupling clean electricity production from wind, solar and perhaps nuclear, plus batteries to store it and connections to Europe to share the load.

• Connection of new homes to the gas grid ending in 2025, with boilers using clean hydrogen or replaced by electric powered heat pumps. Plus, all homes and appliances being highly efficient.  

• Beef, lamb and dairy consumption falling by 20%, though this is far lower than other studies recommend and a bigger shift to plant-based diets would make meeting the zero target easier.

• A fifth of all farmland – 15% of the UK – being converted to tree planting and growing biofuel crops and restoration of peat bogs. This is vital to take CO2 out of the air to balance unavoidable emissions from cattle and planes.

• 1.5bn new trees will be needed, meaning more than 150 football pitches a day of new forests from now to 2050.

• Flying would not be banned, but the number of flights will depend on how much airlines can cut emissions with electric planes or biofuels. 

This year I'm leaving a third of my meadow for nature to take its course. There are already many wild flowers here, and mature trees. The rest will be cut for hay and grazed by sheep. Back in 2000 I planed a 4-acre woodland.

I love these colours of the grasses, the thistles and the dark shadows below the trees. See previous post for images.

I'm re-reading Dieter Helm's Green and Prosperous Land - a blueprint for rescuing the British Countryside (2019).  Two chapters particularly relevant for this part of the UK where I live: 4 - Green agriculture, and 5 - The uplands.