Net zero plans tested in The Fens

A major project in the Cambridgeshire Fens is exploring how the UK can meet its climate targets while protecting one of the country's most productive farming regions - often described as "breadbasket of Britain".

Researchers led by a team from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Landscape Regeneration are testing ways to reduce greenhouse emissions and restore wetlands.

A guest editor on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this week has been the former Conservative prime minister Baroness Theresa May, who introduced the UK's first legally binding net zero target, committing the country to end its contribution to global warming by 2050.

The Great Fens project aims to provide an example of how these ambitions could be achieved locally.

The Fens faces severe pressures and, after draining began in the 17th Century to turn marshland into agricultural land, just 1% of the original wetland remains.

Drained peat soils continue to degrade, releasing carbon dioxide.

Extreme heat and drought in the summer of 2025 also contributed to major crop losses, highlighting the vulnerability of farming.

In 2021, the UK's first major experiment in "wet farming" was awarded £8m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to create wetlands across the Great Fen near Ramsey, aiming to lock up more than 4,000 tonnes of carbon by growing crops without disturbing peat soils.

The Great Fen project aims to improve biodiversity and water quality.

Prof Emily Shuckburgh, chief scientific adviser at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and co-director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, highlighted those challenges.

"We are looking at how to address those twin challenges, but doing so in collaboration with the farming community, with the conservation community and with all the other stakeholders that are associated with the landscape," she said.

Ms Shuckburgh said local farmers had been "absolutely brilliant at coming up with ideas themselves as to what might be done differently in terms of future farming techniques".

"One option is literally raising the water table to reduce emissions from peatlands... but it also has the potential to increase methane... so farmers need to understand the complex balance," she said.

"Without farmers' input, we wouldn't know what is practical or realistic for the landscape."

Megan Hudson is head of research at Oxwillow, which is part of the Taylor Farms group which is experimenting with growing crops in much wetter soil, known as paludiculture.

One method stops the peat breaking down and producing carbon dioxide.

"We're understanding a little bit more about how easy it is to manage a water table on these sites," said Ms Hudson.

"It gives you a little bit of hope that actually there might be a solution going forward in terms of changing our farming systems."

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