06 January 2023

Press Release

For immediate release

'Changes to ELMS still fall short' - WWF comment on Government announcement

Kate Norgrove, WWF’s Executive Director of Advocacy & Campaigns, said:

“While it’s encouraging to see the Government acknowledge that tackling climate change and restoring nature are key to a resilient food system, the changes to ELMS still fall short.

“A future without nature is a future without food. Yet current plans lack bold vision and detail, including critical measures for restoring wildlife, cleaning up our rivers and hitting net zero.

“Last month, more than 50 organisations from farming to finance called for ELMS to be enhanced. We now need action and for our leaders to drive necessary and better changes to ELMS – to futureproof our food system, support nature-friendly farming and restore our green and pleasant land for generations to come.”

Notes to Editors

About ELMs: 

The Government’s Environmental Land Management Schemes for England (ELMS) are essential to futureproof our food system.
They are designed to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) and pay farmers public money for delivering goods through nature-friendly farming practices.  
ELMS currently consists of three schemes: Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Local Nature Recovery (LNR) and Landscape Recovery (LR). 
On 1 December, the Thérèse Coffey announced that the LNR scheme would be replaced by a scheme building on the existing Countryside Stewardship scheme, but gave no further details on what aspects would be protected or built upon in all three schemes.
Around 70% of England’s land is used for agriculture, meaning that the way we farm and use the land is vital for both reducing emissions and capturing carbon. The transition to a new farming system in England could help cut emissions, but it is only due to be fully rolled out by the end of 2027. The equivalent Welsh and Scottish agricultural payment systems are due to be rolled out even later.  
Defra has estimated that up to 6 MtCO2e of GHG emissions can be saved across ELM and the wider farming programme (FFCP) by 2037. WWF research shows that agriculture and land-use can make a greater contribution to tackling climate change than that (Land of Plenty). Both these emissions savings pathways will be challenging, even if the new farming system in England – which will reward farmers for low-emissions practices and storing more carbon on farms - were rolled out on time and plan. So, both timing and level of ambition are imperative
Defra state that the proposed English farming schemes have the potential to create or restore up to 300,000 hectares of habitat by 2042, and bring over half our Sites of Special Scientific Interest into favourable condition by 2042. The government’s overall ambition for 2042 is 500,000 hectares and 75% respectively, and while ELM is not the only way of achieving this, it is the cornerstone. This reemphasises the need for ambition and swift, effective delivery.
The Government review of ELMs must now ensure that the UK doubles down on climate action and presses ahead with even more ambitious plans to support farmers and growers to cut GHG emissions and work with nature right across the UK. Failure to do so would be a betrayal of promises made to the farming sector, and leave the UK struggling to meet its climate and nature targets.  
Agriculture and land use is a devolved policy area; therefore, the Welsh and Scottish governments are responsible for developing equivalent processes to ELMs in Scotland and Wales.  
Work by WWF-Scotland and WWF-Wales offices show ambition on reducing emissions from agriculture and land in devolved nations is also weak. For example, WWF-Scotland found that current Scottish policy does not get Scottish agriculture even halfway to where it needs to be by 2032 to meet climate targets; and WWF-Wales are working on getting agricultural emission reduction targets in the Welsh net zero plans, which currently has no specific targets on agriculture.