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PolicY UK
PolicY UK
Chief (Lord Deben, ex Tory Cabinet) of UK’s Climate Change Committee - in relation to governments ‘Net Zero Strategy’: “We still haven’t had a proper programme for land use. You’ve actually got to have trees, you’ve got to have soil. The missing bit of it is the land use programme” He also says that the new trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia were “entirely unacceptable for climate change purposes".
Following Brexit, there were now signs of movement with plans to establish a specific target and set of metrics for the vision of ‘Sustainably Managed Soils by 2030’ (England) under the 25 Year Plan for the Environment – a target which was first established in 2009 in Safeguarding our soils: A strategy for England. In the same year, Scotland published its Scottish Soil Framework - but like the English equivalent, it did not commit to any new policies or investment, but provided a framework for the better coordination of old ones.
Wales does not have an equivalent soils strategy, however, the 2015 Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act required Welsh Ministers to set 46 national indicators to assess progress towards achieving the country’s seven well-being goals, including one on Concentration of carbon and organic matter in soil.
Despite the 'freedoms offered by Brexit', the following occurred..
Government votes down Lords Amendment 2021 to put soil centre stage of the Environment Bill. MPs rejected Baroness Bennett's amendment (20 October) with its own long-term target to secure its recovery, in line with the government’s decision to vote down all amendments. The Soil Association said MPs had "missed a crucial opportunity to take the role of soils in the climate crisis seriously".
"Lords amendment 2 would require the Government to set a legally binding target on soil health. I would like to be clear with the House and the other place that we are currently considering how to develop the appropriate means of measuring soil health, which could be used to inform a future soils target. However, we do not yet have the reliable metrics needed to set a robust target by October next year and to measure its progress. If we accepted the amendment, we could be committing to doing something that we cannot deliver or might not even know if we have delivered. I am sure hon. Members and hon. Friends would agree that that is not a sensible approach..I can provide reassurance that the Government, as announced in the other place on Report, will be bringing forward a soil health action plan for England. It will provide a clear strategic direction to develop a healthy soil indicator, soil structure methodology and a soil health monitoring scheme. Minister Rebecca Pow. I did contact Cranfield Uni for their comment on the inadequacy of our present soil stats but got no response.
EFRA Select Committee on Soil Health 2023
EFRA Select Committee on Soil Health 2023
EFRA Committee on Soil Health 2023 Minister's session June.
The Minister began the session by defending his decision to abandon the Soil Health Action Plan for England (SHAPE) - the plan quoted by previous Minister Rebecca Pow as the reason for not implementing soil targets in Environment Act. (Rebecca was Champion of Sustainable Soils Alliance SSA). The new Minster's reason was "Because we can do it better and quicker through the EIP" He was challenged that water air and waste get more attention than the mere 2 pages in EIP (Gowling explanation) devoted to soil (The forward by the PM says "The natural environment of these islands has shaped who we are. It is the soil from which our country grew." ). The Minister said they will report on that progress by May 2024 on the EIP. He said the land use framework "is a good way of identifying the soil types we have up and down the country, and what their uses are, but it also highlights the complexity of the system and how many different types of soil there are."
The Soil of Life session took oral evidence about "the current state of soil health in the UK and what they think of government strategies to improve it – including financial incentive schemes and ways consumers and the private sector might influence soil health; and future rules and regulations for soil". Tony Grayling (Env Agency) said "our The state of the environment 2019: soil report shows that our soils are not in a good state and have been heavily degraded over time. The costs to society and the economy are quite significant and the contribution that soils could make to mitigating and adapting to climate change is also at risk." John Gilliland (AHDB) said "to manage you first have to measure, but if you empower land managers with really good information about their own farm—not their neighbour’s farm but their own farm—they will rise to the challenge". Eleanor Reed (Nat England) said "The EIP sets out a number of targets and commitments, including a commitment to updating the construction code of practice for the sustainable use of soils on construction sites and to reduce the amount of soil going to landfill. That is really tying in the importance of soils away from agricultural land, highlighting the importance of all soils." More on EIP and Soil
SSA said: "Inconsistent messages around soils in the SFI is emblematic of an overall lack of vision, which was crystallised when watching the final session of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s inquiry into soil health, featuring the minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries Mark Spencer. It was disappointingly obvious that there is no coherent action plan for soil health, and we summarised our observations in a briefing note linked below. We are eagerly anticipating the publication of the EFRA Committee’s final report due later this year, and you can see how the SSA fed into the inquiry in the infographic below. " SSA Press Release Detailed Observations More on SFI and Soil Health
World UN Soil and SDGs
EU Horizon-Europe project to restore Soil Health "ORCaSa goes a step further and considers not only agricultural soils but also forests, pastures, wetlands, and public spaces in urban areas"
The European Union’s Soil Observatory is holding stakeholder forums to actively engage and exchange with the soil community, from policy makers and scientists to local actors, civil society representatives and citizens. Read more and register here
Canada Policy must reward not punish early adopters of soil health. "The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry in Canada is currently engaged in an extensive examination of soil health across the nation. This initiative forms part of their efforts to conduct a fresh study on Canadian soil health "
Australia had led the way on soil protection through different policies, including the position of a National Soil Advocate. This role has now been discontinued, and we will be curious to see what comes next
Legal Aspects of Soil podcast "In EU Soil is capital"
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