Yesterday, to mark World Environment Day, Operation Noah delivered an open letter signed by over 500 people to Church offices in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh (whom we met on Wednesday). The letter, addressed to leaders of nine UK Church denominations, called for net zero land emissions by 2030 and outlined seven practical targets, including restoring peatland, protecting land for nature and supporting climate-friendly farming.
Alongside the letter, we shared a photo book featuring inspiring stories of churches already using their land to care for creation.
We hope these stories will inspire and encourage leaders to think about how they can do more to ensure church land is part of the solution to the climate crisis.
Importantly, we had constructive and positive conversations with Church leaders and staff during the deliveries. Nearly all the church denominations agreed to meet with us beforehand to receive the letter and take time to engage with us and hear more about our vision for church land use.
The meetings we had were encouraging: we were able to share why church land is such an important asset for the church, especially for cutting carbon emissions. We were encouraged to hear about what churches are already doing to tackle the climate crisis and some discussed how the vision could be shared more formally across their denomination.
We look forward to continuing the conversation in the months ahead with all churches and are excited about how the church can take a lead in the fight against climate change.
Churches collectively own around 1% of UK land, and how this land is managed has a significant impact on emissions and ecosystems.
Operation Noah’s Church land use vision and campaign is calling for the following:
- Transparency: Denominations and dioceses should be clear about the land they own and how it is used, devising and publishing Land Management Plans with 2030 targets.
- Mapping: Maps of denominational and diocesan-owned land indicating land use and protected areas should be publicly available upon request by 2030.
- Emissions: Denominations and dioceses should have publicly-accessible plans for reaching net zero emissions on church land by 2030 or as soon as legally possible.
- Biodiversity: Over 30% of Church-owned land should be protected for nature by 2030.
- Growing Trees: 10% Church-owned land should be planted with suitable trees by 2030 unless other habitat areas designated for nature are demonstrated to be more or equally valuable. New trees should be mainly mixed native varieties supporting biodiversity.
- Protecting Peatland: Denominations and dioceses which own peatland should be restoring/rewetting 100% of degraded peatland by 2030 or as soon as legally possible.
- Supporting Farm Net Zero: Denominations/dioceses which own agricultural land should support tenants to reach farm net zero by 2030 or as soon as legally possible.
