The SLA is a supporter of the James Hutton Institute successful bid to UKRI on the topic of Land Use For Net Zero Hub ( LUNZ).

The breadth of knowledge available within the SLA and its supporters will provide valuable input into the work of the Hub.

The three themes are soil health, agricultural systems, and land use change and the work will address the three top policy priorities of:

1. Socially just land use change which achieves net zero by 2050 and addresses wider ecosystem co-benefits (e.g. biodiversity, soil health, green growth) at different levels; including the breadth of policy driving land use change (e.g. renewable energy, planning frameworks, forestry, water); reflecting UK international commitments (e.g. Paris Agreement; UN Framework Conventions on Climate Change and Biological Diversity); statutory obligations (e.g. UK Climate Change Act 2008; Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019).
2. Integrating public (policy instruments) and private mechanisms (e.g. carbon markets) to increase the health of soils, transforming them from a net carbon source to a sink, whilst increasing food security (e.g. agriculture, food, environment).
3. Future agricultural/environmental policies, including payment schemes and plausible policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase removals, strengthening food security, social equity and biodiversity (e.g. woodland planting; peatland restoration; biochar; rock dust).

The Hub embodies a ‘four nation’ approach, with lead investigators in all four nations of the UK whose role is to ensure strong stakeholder and policy engagement in the devolved administrations and central government as well as UK-wide non-governmental and industry involvement in the LUNZ community of practice.

The review of evidence aims to be appropriate to tailor for use with policy teams at all levels of governance (e.g. including Scottish Government, local authorities, and the RLUPs, alongside the rest of the UK).

https://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/hutton-co-leads-major-research-investment-national-land-use-transformation