🌊 We’re hiring! Join @RSPBScience on an exciting new project exploring marine management scenarios across the UK’s seas. Work with scientists & policy experts to help shape marine conservation🐋🦀🐟 Apply here 👉 https://t.co/pifl1L1Qz2 #ConservationJobs #MarineScience

Right now, the UK Government is considering cuts to the nature-friendly farming budget – the biggest pot of funding for nature. Here’s why that would be a disaster for farmers, food security, and wildlife. A thread. 🧵👇

Solar farm management influences breeding bird responses in an arable-dominated landscape | https://t.co/QtVI08MZXA | Bird Study | #ornithology

Exciting research showing solar farms w/ diverse habitats can support more farmland bird species. As part of their work with us at the CLR, Josh Copping & Catherine Waite contributed to these findings . A great example of how renewable energy & nature recovery can go hand in hand

A new study from Cambridge and RSPB suggests birds and other wildlife may thrive on solar farms near intense agriculture, if managed for nature https://t.co/WakYrCD3CS

Our latest piece of research is out! 🎉 We found that -hectare for hectare- solar farms managed with nature in mind can support a greater number of bird species & individuals than surrounding intensively managed arable land 🐦 @RSPBScience @CLR_Cambridge https://t.co/9CUSHkmyc8

Green vs #growth is a false choice. It’s out of date and doesn’t deal with resilience for the future.

Results are mixed but what is most striking is that recent trends are predominantly downwards, a pattern most pronounced in England in nearly all groups of birds. That’s a real worry given ambitions to halt and reverse species trends. @_BTO @JNCC_UK @BBS_birds

6/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Conclusions • Ambitious renewable deployment uses only a small fraction of land • Little cost to food production, GHG sequestration & most terrestrial birds • We could deploy more renewables without substantially contributing to future land challenges

5/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Results Onshore wind and solar had a small impact on bird habitat availability at the national scale because the footprint of infrastructure is small and the increases in habitat availability from NbS far outweigh the impact from renewable energy deployment

4/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Results Ambitious deployment of onshore wind and solar caused only a minor (<1%) reduction in UK food production and a small impact to net AFOLU GHG emissions, meaning a net-zero land sector (>100% reduction) is still achievable thanks to NbS

3/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Methods We built scenarios of renewable energy capacity (high, low, none) combined with two land use ambitions (Baseline - urban expansion only; NBS Extra – Baseline + ambitious nature-based solutions). We updated land cover maps and modelled outcomes

2/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Methods We created opportunity maps of where onshore wind and solar could be deployed using ecological, physical, resource, and land cover constraints. This revealed up to 24.3% of UK land was deemed suitable for wind and 4.9% for solar

1/6 #BOUasm24 #SESH3 | Modelling the impact of onshore renewable expansion on nature, food, and carbon We assess the area of land needed for onshore renewable energy generation and explore co-benefits and trade-offs. Full details in our latest paper: https://t.co/898igbaZT8

There has been a rapid expansion in growing crops to produce biomethane as cleaner alternative to fossil fuels to help reach #NetZero But cultivating maize on drained peat emits 3x more #CO2 than it avoids by not using natural #gas says new @UK_CEH study: https://t.co/n5tKTkZryY

ICYMI, we mapped opportunities for onshore renewables across the UK, and found that there's easily enough space to meet net zero energy targets without compromising other objectives from land: https://t.co/FoNLcomam3 Eagerly awaiting the government's Strategic Spatial Energy Plan

Great to Josh's hard work pay off with a publication. We reckon there is ample space for onshore renewables to be deployed without meaningfully impact food or nature. So, no excuse for development in silly places. As with all land-use decisions, we need to be strategic.

New research from @Natures_Voice shows there is room for greater ambition on onshore wind and solar #energy deployment to enable the UK to transition towards much higher levels of #renewable energy.  https://t.co/vYz3XNAi3o

In doing so, nature can be given suitable space to play a crucial role in our overall efforts to tackle climate change, underpin our food security through nature-friendly farming, and reach net zero emissions by 2050. 8/8

So, what does this mean? The relatively small percentage of land required for renewables means we can steer the deployment of onshore renewables towards lower-grade agricultural land and away from sensitive wildlife areas and national parks. 7/8