Five pioneering UK research projects have been given a share of £14.5 million funding by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and government partners to boost the UK’s efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The ambitious projects aim to revolutionise agricultural practices, land use change and soil health in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.
They are part of the transforming land use for net zero, nature and people programme (LUNZ), this latest investment supports its second phase.
What is JUSTLANZ?
JUSTLANZ, one of the five projects, aims to develop transformative pathways for a just transition to net zero for the UK food- farming sector.
It is being led by the RSPB and supported by James Hutton Institute, University of Leeds, University of Cambridge, Cranfield University, SRUC Innovation Ltd, Living Levels Partnership and Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group –South West.
Professor Julia Martin-Ortega, Dr Paula Novo, Associate Professor David Williams and Professor George Holmes from University of Leeds will be supporting JUSTLANZ. The funding bid was supported by water@leeds Research and Innovation Development Manager Dr Susannah Hopson.
Their research will explore how to achieve Net Zero justly, whilst achieving and balancing priorities such as food production, biodiversity restoration and people’s needs in agricultural landscapes.
Achieving a transition to net zero and meeting biodiversity targets, whilst ensuring food security, is probably one of the biggest challenges we face as a society.
We have no choice but to try – and to do so in a way that is fair for all.
I feel privileged to have been trusted with this funding to deliver research in support of such important goals.
We have designed a highly participatory process, in which we hope to engage intensively with the farming community, value chain-actors, government agencies and nature organisations to craft together just pathways for a sustainable future. Professor Julia Martin-Ortega, Associate Director water@leeds
It will involve working with livestock farmers and their communities, the food-farming sector, policy makers, academics and conservation organisations. The aim is to integrate their different views and values to co-design innovative and sustainable solutions in four UK pastoral landscapes.
The project combines policy-driven land use scenario models, climate data and future visions from food- farming communities to co-create “preferred” scenarios that attempt to reconcile land-use demands. It will examine the impact of different scenarios on carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural productivity, biodiversity and justice.
Finally, food-farming communities and other stakeholders will co-develop transformative pathways to ensure solutions can effect change throughout the whole UK food-farming system.
These are groundbreaking and ambitious projects that address many of the critical research gaps and challenges behind how we transition UK land use for both climate goals and society as a whole. Professor Lee-Ann Sutherland, James Hutton Institute and LUNZ Hub co-lead.
Over the course of the program the LUNZ Hub will work closely with the LUNZ Projects to identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration, as well as potential drivers of change and viable policy levers. Professor Sutherland said the design of these projects reflected many of the characteristics of the Hub: transdisciplinary, addressing social, economic and scientific challenges simultaneously, and with a strong emphasis on designing and imagining scenarios that explain the transition to Net Zero.
For more information about the projects and see the Land Use Net Zero Hub press release and UKRI press release
