Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the new environmental land management scheme will provide specific rewards for evidence of actions that contribute towards reaching net zero.

We are introducing three Environmental Land Management schemes that reward the delivery of environmental benefits: the Sustainable Farming Incentive; Local Nature Recovery; and Landscape Recovery. These schemes will be vital to supporting the delivery of our environmental targets, including achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Through these schemes, we will support farmers to significantly reduce agricultural emissions, for example, through reduced use of inorganic fertiliser through more efficient and sustainable nutrient management. We anticipate that the collective actions of farmers under our environmental land management scheme agreements, together with the Farming Innovation Fund which will fund the deployment of new technologies, and our other farming offers we will decarbonise agricultural emissions by up to a total of 6 MtCO2e per annum in Carbon Budget 6 (2033-2037) in England. Further to this we will also continue to pursue more opportunities through the schemes to support farmers and land managers' contribution to delivering our Carbon Budgets, including through tree planting and peat restoration.