This layer identifies some of the strategic opportunities in your area for positive change and work out plans with land managers to enhance carbon, whatever the current land use. It will help you understand whether you are aiming to increase carbon by a smaller amount over a large area or concentrate on a couple of smaller schemes where there will be a large enhancement such as tree planting on low intensity (species poor) grassland. In this layer we have followed the IPCC methodology for reporting carbon emissions . Emissions are recorded as a positive value as they are adding to the carbon burden in the atmosphere. Sequestration is recorded as a negative value as it is removing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration maps shows where the environment is actively capturing carbon dioxide and binding it in plants and soils. What is being captured now with the current land use, habitats and crops. As sequestration is much more dependent on land use and management practices which vary more widely this data is only a guide for broad trends not local differences in management. i.e. where woodland or grassland cover is consistent not variation between farming practices in fields or woodland management at a local area. It is measured as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year (t CO2e ha-1 y-1 ).Many areas in agricultural production will have a neutral carbon balance where land management is sufficient to replace carbon lost in cropping or grazing from the vegetation and tillage from the soil. However, some soil types are very vulnerable to losing carbon when actively managed, these includes the very fertile but deep lowland agricultural peats. The figures for habitat sequestration of carbon are taken from the Natural England Report NERR094 (Gregg et.al. 2021). This report identified some key gaps. Each habitat type was assigned a likely score for sequestration. Carbon sequestration is less researched and harder to measure and therefore the confidence in this dataset is lower than in the carbon storage dataset.

Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

This layer identifies some of the strategic opportunities in your area for positive change and work out plans with land managers to enhance carbon, whatever the current land use. It will help you understand whether you are aiming to increase carbon by a smaller amount over a large area or concentrate on a couple of smaller schemes where there will be a large enhancement such as tree planting on low intensity (species poor) grassland. In this layer we have followed the IPCC methodology for reporting carbon emissions . Emissions are recorded as a positive value as they are adding to the carbon burden in the atmosphere. Sequestration is recorded as a negative value as it is removing carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration maps shows where the environment is actively capturing carbon dioxide and binding it in plants and soils. What is being captured now with the current land use, habitats and crops. As sequestration is much more dependent on land use and management practices which vary more widely this data is only a guide for broad trends not local differences in management. i.e. where woodland or grassland cover is consistent not variation between farming practices in fields or woodland management at a local area. It is measured as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year (t CO2e ha-1 y-1 ).Many areas in agricultural production will have a neutral carbon balance where land management is sufficient to replace carbon lost in cropping or grazing from the vegetation and tillage from the soil. However, some soil types are very vulnerable to losing carbon when actively managed, these includes the very fertile but deep lowland agricultural peats. The figures for habitat sequestration of carbon are taken from the Natural England Report NERR094 (Gregg et.al. 2021). This report identified some key gaps. Each habitat type was assigned a likely score for sequestration. Carbon sequestration is less researched and harder to measure and therefore the confidence in this dataset is lower than in the carbon storage dataset.

Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.