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22/02/25 - Farming Today This Week: Peat and climate change, bottom trawling, inheritance tax

The majority of the UK's peatlands could be at risk of drying out in the next 40-50 years because of climate change - according to a new study.

The majority of the UK's peatlands could be at risk of drying out in the next 40-50 years because of climate change - according to a new study from scientists at the Universities of Exeter, Manchester and Derby. Healthy, wet peatlands are seen as part of the solution to climate change because they soak up planet-heating carbon dioxide - UK peatlands currently store an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. But where they dry out, they become a problem because they can then release that stored carbon back into the atmosphere.

MPs have been debating calls to ban bottom trawling in some parts of the sea. Bottom trawling is a method of fishing where weighted nets are dragged along the seabed to gather things like scallops, sole and plaice. According to The Marine Conservation Society, bottom trawling is currently forbidden across 5% of the UK's MPAs, and a wider ban in ALL protected areas is something conservation charities have been calling for, for some time. But is it the right move?

And farming leaders have said they left a much-anticipated meeting with the Treasury this week with their blood "boiling", claiming the Government has "shut the door" on any rethink of planned changes to inheritance tax on farms. Representatives from agricultural organisations met the Exchequer Secretary, James Murray, and Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner, on Tuesday. It follows months of protests over plans for inherited agricultural assets worth more than a million pounds to be taxed at 20% from April next year.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons

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