Peat

The Truth about Scotland's Peat

Exposed peat as seen in the photograph is decomposing and giving off carbon dioxide.

Degraded peat in Scotland releases 6.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is 13% of Scotland's total greenhouse gas emissions. Other greenhouse gases that are emitted are - Methane and Nitrous Oxide.

It is estimated that over 75% of Scotlands peatlands are degraded. Scotland's peatlands sequester (capture) 0.3 to 0.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This compares to its emissions of 6.9 million tonnes. Overall Scotland's degraded peat is a liability and not an asset. It needs to be restored as a matter of urgency or it will continue being a huge emitter of carbon dioxide. Restoring peat by rewetting is the standard method, but even this is not without problems - if it is not done in the right way, with the right vegitation it may cause methane emissions to  rise. Peat rstoration is not easy and it requires a lot of work.

The Flow Country peat is largely intact and this is how the rest of Scotland's peat needs to be - to restore the degraded peat is a massive task fraught with difficulty. Healthy peat has great biodiversity, has a cooling effect and holds back water preventing flooding.

Peat captures 0.3 to 0.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year whilst Scotland's forests capture 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This does not, of course, mean plant trees on peat! That would just make things worse by disturbing the peat and drying it out.

It should be acknowledged that Scotland has a really big problem with its degraded peat greenhouse gas emissions. Dealing with this problem needs to be a high priority.

For comparison here are some other percentages for Scotland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions -

Agriculture 23.2%

Road Transport 20.5%

(Peat 13%)

Heating homes 8.9%

Flying is approximately 5.2%

Globally Peat contains twice as much carbon as the world's forests. Usually the word stores is used. That's fine if the peat is not degraded then it will store, but if it is degraded it will emit and not store.

What we should NOT be doing is using peat for garden compost or disturbing it in anyway. we should NOT be burning peatlands - not only does this cause immediate releases of carbon dioxide it also exposes the peat and sometimes the peat will smoulder for weeks with fires breaking out again.

Richard Paul