Land Use for Net Zero Hub (LUNZ Hub)

Agriculture and land use have a major impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as a wide range of other environmental, societal and economic outcomes, but progress towards decarbonisation is lagging behind other sectors.

Achieving the transformation at scale that is needed, will require all 4 devolved governments in the UK, working collaboratively, to access world-class research and innovation to help them develop policies across the relevant sectors - farming, planning, energy etc. It will also require insights and expertise from the large transdisciplinary, cross-sectoral community with on-the-ground knowledge understanding of these industries.

The LUNZ Hub aims to provide all four UK administrations with the evidence they need to develop policies that will drive the UK land transformation needed to achieve net zero and other environmental and social targets by 2050. Alongside researchers and academics from the country’s leading institutions, the Hub involves and engages experts from a range of relevant disciplines – farming, business, green finance etc. - with hands-on knowledge of issues including planning, soil health, afforestation and water management.

LUNZ Hub approach: Four nations approach and a Big Tent transdisciplinary community

• Four national teams and one UK team
• Sensitive and responsive to devolved nation priorities and stakeholder groups
  • 34 organisations, IfA is one of them, including agricultural advisory organisations, arms-length agencies, academics, green finance, NGOs and an arts collective
• Access to many specialists covering a wide range of topics
• Led by James Hutton Institute and the University of Leicester
• 40-month project

Three primary topic areas: 

• Soil Health and Carbon Dynamics
• Agricultural Systems
• Land Use Change

Two components:

• Coordination and Translation Hub
• Research Projects

How we work in the Hub

WP1 Agile Policy Centre:

• Policy clearing house
• Rapid access to evidence
• New ways of working

WP2 Transdisciplinary Community  

• Wide stakeholder involvement
• Creative methods lab
• Digital capacity building

WP3 Net Zero Futures Platform

• Plausible scenarios and pathways
• Two iterations of co-design

IfA's Evi Arachoviti is co-leading WP2 on building a transdisciplinary community with specialists from academia and stakeholders from the wider farming community and industry, catalysing engagements and building capabilities & capacities on knowledge practices that are inherently problem-oriented and reflect the value, prospects and challenges of changing land use to achieve net zero and meet the needs of people and nature.

We are thrilled to participating in this project, as LUNZ will play a pivotal role in supporting policy makers decision making and helping communicating more widely the critical importance of land as a carbon sink or source.

The Hub is co-funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (on behalf of England and Wales), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Scottish Government. It has been co-designed with Defra and the Welsh and Scottish governments.