The Greenhouse Gas Removal Programme
Our NetZeroPlus is one of five individual Green House Gas Removal Demonstrator Projects and a central Directorate Hub to received funding from the Greenhouse Gas Removal Demonstrators Programme, known as GGR-D.
The Programme has been set up to support sustainable routes for large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, enabling the UK to take a major step towards achieving net-zero emissions. Find out more about each of the projects below.
The GGR Projects
Biochar
The biochar project will address the uncertainties concerning the extent and scope of deployment of biochar, including its stability with respect to carbon sequestration, together with quantifying effects on soil health and ecosystem services, economic viability and social acceptability. Field trials will take place at arable and grassland sites in the Midlands and Wales, an open cast coal mine site in Cumbria, denuded railway embankments, and forestry sites in England and Wales.
Enhanced Rock Weathering
The enhanced rock weathering project will explore amending soils with crushed calcium and magnesium rich silicate rocks from waste quarry fines to accelerate natural CO2 sequestration processes. It will provide the first integrated whole system assessment of the science, societal and scalability opportunities and challenges of enhanced rock weathering deployment in UK agriculture. Field sites are the Plynlimon Experimental Catchments (mid-Wales), Rothamsted Research’s North Wyke grassland experimental platform in Devon, and their cutting-edge arable research facility in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.
Peatland Restoration
GGR-Peat, the peat restoration project, will work with natural processes to restore, and where possible enhance, the environmental conditions that lead to peat formation. Simultaneously it will develop innovative approaches to increase rates of CO2 uptake and store it securely for millennia. As part of this project, three experimental test locations will be established in representative lowland and upland peat settings: South Yorkshire, near Doncaster; land owned by the National Trust in the South Pennines; and the Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre in the Cambrian Mountains of Wales.
Perennial biomass crops
PBC4GGR, the perennial biomass crops project is investigating the potential for plants like willow and miscanthus to support BECCS in the UK. It will demonstrate novel establishment techniques that maximise yield whilst minimising greenhouse gas emissions, and provide an up to date quantification of the scope for Greenhouse Gas Removal. The project will establish the conditions required for farmer uptake and wider societal acceptance, and investigate the costs, benefits and trade-offs for biodiversity and ecosystem services. New field trials will be developed – for miscanthus at Bishop Burton College, East Yorkshire and willow at Myerscough College, Lancashire.
Woodland Creation and Management
NetZeroPlus, the woodland creation and management project, will gather evidence, address knowledge gaps and allow decision makers to explore the Greenhouse Gas Removal consequences of different tree-planting options and explore all the diverse aspects of forestry to identify “the right tree in the right place”. As well as Greenhouse Gas Removal, the project will deliver valuable insights on how tree-planting can deliver other benefits such as enhanced biodiversity, water quality, recreation and health, and pioneer an approach to decision making that takes into account all the effects of land use change.
The Directorate Hub
The Directorate Hub will provide an overarching coordination role across the suite of interdisciplinary programme activities, with a specific focus on environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical, legal and governance issues. The Hub will be responsible for the integration of findings and research, and will coordinate options for a balanced suite of GGR technologies that could provide successful GGR solutions.
