Exmoor's Carbon Footprint
Background
As the world wakes up to the climate and wider environmental emergency, rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and sustainable land management are becoming increasingly central to the local, national and international policy agendas.
Together, the UK’s 15 National Parks (NPs) and 46 Areas of Outstanding National Beauty (AONBs) are home to over 1.5 million residents, attract approximately 250 million visitors per year, and account for around 18% of the UK’s land area. If these protected landscapes can become exemplars of low-carbon transition and environment-conscious land management, their national and international profiles could give them a level of influence that far outweighs the scale of their own emissions.
The exciting and creative challenge for each protected landscape is to find a way to cut emissions in line with current science, and be leaders in land stewardship and planning while simultaneously creating better places for people to live, work and visit.
The Report
This report, for the Exmoor National Park, is one of a series of methodologically compatible reports produced for each UK National Park. They are designed to provide a robust and consistent evidence basis for climate action, matched to the unique characteristics and circumstances of each protected landscape, as we enter an era in which climate mitigation and sustainable land management become ever more central to all our lives, our work and to all policy decisions.
Summary Report (pdf)
Full Report (pdf) or Full Report (doc)
Land Use Targets
Following the initial baseline analysis carried out by Small World Consulting, further work was done to revise and update the recommended land use targets for Exmoor, including for woodland creation, peatland restoration, and regenerative agriculture. These indicate the contribution that Exmoor National Park can make towards the UK’s net zero targets, based on the UK’s Sixth Carbon budget. The analysis has been used to inform the proposed targets in the draft Exmoor National Park Partnership Plan 2025-2030 Partnership Plan 2025 Consultation | Exmoor