Inside National Trust’s Plan to Reach Net Zero by 2030
The Paris Agreement set 2050 as the net zero deadline to prevent catastrophic global warming, but some businesses are aiming to go above and beyond this goal.
The National Trust, Europe’s largest conservation charity, wants to be 20 years early with its target set for 2030.
The charity has released its People and Nature Thriving strategy, outlining its path to achieving this goal.
“Climate change and the catastrophic decline in nature together represent the single biggest threat not only to the National Trust and the places in our care, but to nature, heritage and communities across the globe,” says Hilary McGrady, Director General at the National Trust.
She calls the strategy “a bold and necessary response to the world we see today, outlining how we will play our part in addressing the societal challenges we face”.
Why the National Trust set this goal
Nature, beauty and history are three things the National Trust manages day-to-day, which it describes as “part of the fabric of society”.
The charity cares for picturesque parts of the UK including the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, Roman gold mine Dolaucothi in Wales and country houses like Attingham Park in England.
Climate change and the nature crisis significantly threaten the coasts and countryside that the National Trust looks after.
Floods, wildfires, droughts and storms are all increasing and weather patterns can affect habitats and historic buildings.
National Trust’s climate action work is built around four key objectives:
- Reducing carbon emissions from all activities to be carbon net zero by 2030
- Adapting and being resilient to a changing climate in choices made
- Capturing more carbon from its land
- Engaging others to inspire action.
It originally set its net zero by 2030 target in 2019-20.
National Trust’s sustainability goals
National Trust’s main objective is to reduce its Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 5% year-on-year from 2019-20 to 2030, aligning with a science-based pathway to limit warming to 1.5°C.
It also aims to use its land to capture and store carbon.
Scope 3, as with most organisations, make up the majority of National Trust’s emissions and a substantial portion of this, 49.1%, comes from tenanted farms.
Just more than a fifth of its Scope 3 emissions are attributed to its investments portfolio and a further 16.5% from purchased goods and services.
Alongside its major emissions reductions goals, the charity also aims to make its properties more efficient, invest in renewables, transition to electric vehicles, promote sustainable travel and integrate nature and climate solutions in caring for land.
How National Trust will achieve its goals
National Trust is in the process of creating 250,000 hectares of “nature-rich and climate resilient” landscape.
This, in part, involves the restoration of peatlands which are the most efficient carbon sinks on the planet.
National Trust is responsible for around 25,000 hectares of peatland across England and Wales, holding around 2% of the UK’s total carbon stored in peat soils.
These strategies also play into its goals for farming, responsible for a significant portion of the charity’s emissions.
National Trust is strengthening its data collection and modelling to better understand the emissions produced and working with farmers to support the adoption of nature friendly farming practices.
The organisation aims to establish 20 million trees on land in its care by 2030 which could capture and store up to 10 million tonnes of CO₂e over the next hundred years.