UK injects £14.5 million in land use and net zero research

Five pioneering UK research projects have each received a share of £14.5 million funding under phase two of the transforming land use for net zero, nature and people programme.

The UK's efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 have been significantly boosted thanks to a £14.5 million investment by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and government partners. Marking phase two of the transforming land use for net zero, nature and people programme (LUNZ), this latest funding supports five ambitious research projects that aim to revolutionise agricultural practices, land use change and soil health in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.

One of these five projects is JUSTLANZ being led from University of Leeds by Dr David Williams, water@leeds Associate Director Prof Julia Martin-Ortega, Dr Paula Novo and Prof George Holmes, School of Earth and Environment. The funding bid was supported by water@leeds Research and Innovation Development Manager Dr Susannah Hopson.

Reacting to the announcement, LUNZ Hub co-lead Professor Lee-Ann Sutherland (James Hutton Institute) said:

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.

'In their design these projects reflect 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. 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.'

LUNZ JUSTLANZ project

Just transformation of food-farming systems: reconciling net zero and other land-use ambitions

JUSTLANZ aims to develop transformative pathways for a just transition to net zero for the UK food- farming sector, considering local, regional and national priorities.

Working with livestock farmers and their communities, the food-farming sector, policy makers, academics and conservation organisations, JUSTLANZ integrates different knowledges, views and values to co-design, and develop innovative and sustainable solutions and pathways in four UK pastoral landscapes. Ultimately, JUSTLANZ tests how a transdisciplinary, holistic research approach can realise sustainable transitions.

Our research explores how to achieve Net Zero justly, whilst achieving and balancing priorities such as food production, biodiversity restoration and people’s needs in agricultural 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. We will examine the impact of different scenarios on carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural productivity, biodiversity and justice. Finally, transformative pathways towards these “preferred” futures will be co-developed with food-farming communities and other stakeholders, to ensure solutions can effect change throughout the whole UK food-farming system.

JUSTLANZ will transform current land-use scientific knowledge through innovative research focused on tackling real-world societal challenges, laying the foundations for broader, just and sustained transformative change in all four UK nations.

Led by: Richard Bradbury, Joelene Hughes, Antonia Eastwood, Tom Finch, and Sean Woods (RSPB), Robin Pakeman, Mike Rivington, Mohamed Jabloun, Simone Piras, and Simone Martino (James Hutton Institute), Julia Martin-Ortega, Paula Novo, David Williams, and George Holmes (University of Leeds), Adam Pellegrini (University of Cambridge), Moira Gallagher and David Brown (SRUC Innovation Ltd), Chris Harris (Living Levels Partnership), Jacqueline Hannam, (Cranfield University) and Amanda Gallacher and Mandy Lowe (FWAG-SW).

The contact for LUNZ JUSTLANZ is Janet.Howard@RSPB.org.uk

Photograph: Examining crop trials. Image by UNDO