Introduce a well-designed Carbon Emissions Land Tax, providing incentives for large landowners to manage land, particularly peatlands, in ways which maximise the carbon locked into the land and minimise emissions
Scotland’s land could be sequestering millions of tonnes of carbon a year more than it does at present. Despite incentives such as woodland and peatland restoration grants, our land is failing to deliver its immense potential to become a major carbon sink. By attaching a payment (a tax) to land management choices that negatively impact nature and climate, a Carbon Emissions Land Tax would incentivise large landowners, with holdings over 1,000 hectares, to take more seriously their responsibilities to support national and international climate targets and accelerate progress towards maximising the carbon locked into soils and vegetation on large landholdings.
Additionally, the tax could lead to the creation of a range of technical, professional and manual jobs, particularly in Scotland’s most sparsely populated areas. It would also contribute to nature protection by shifting land use away from damaging practices such as muirburn and overgrazing, which in turn would allow nature and biodiversity to flourish alongside restored peatlands and expanded woodlands.
With highly concentrated levels of land ownership in Scotland, the measure would also have the benefit of taxing a major source of wealth inequality. It should be well designed to avoid any unintended impacts on common grazings or tenant farmers.
The tax could assist the delivery of a Just Transition by generating many millions of pounds for hard-pressed rural councils, which in turn could be used to help fund climate-related projects, such as extensions of concessionary public transport; home insulation for social housing; community renewable start-ups; community woodland projects; and organic local food production and distribution.
A Carbon Emissions Land Tax would be administered and collected by local councils, under devolved powers. It would only require enabling legislation by the Scottish Parliament to give councils the powers to introduce the tax at a local level.
The impact of the tax would take time to translate into carbon savings, but academic studies and Scottish Government research suggests that the areas of land that would be targeted by this tax have the potential to sequester, at a conservative estimate, upwards of 6 million tonnes of CO2e annually by 2040 (around 15% of Scotland’s current annual emissions).
For more information:
• It’s time for a Carbon Emissions Land Tax, John Muir Trust