Support UK farmers to meet climate targets, ministers told
Written by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Green campaigners call for clarity on tree-planting and on interim subsidy system
Farmers need more support from the government to plant the trees necessary to meet the UK’s climate targets, ministers have been told, as they consider wide-ranging changes to farming payments after Brexit.
Tree-planting is expensive, difficult and requires patience as the trees take years or even decades to yield commercial returns. Farmers and green campaigners are concerned that they will be left out of government plans to bring in a new interim subsidy system – called the sustainable farming incentive – to tide farmers over between the end of European subsidies this year, and the phasing in of new environmental land management contracts in 2027.
Related: Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis
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