IRRECOVERABLE CARBON COUNTRY PROFILE
United Kingdom
216
Million
metric tons of total irrecoverable carbon located in the United Kingdom, averaging 15.6 metric tons per hectare in lands that contain irrecoverable carbon
58.1
Percent
of irrecoverable carbon is within protected areas
6.8
Percent
of irrecoverable carbon is within Indigenous and community lands
306
Vertebrate Species
in high-carbon areas
2.7
Percent
of irrecoverable carbon lost between 2011-2024
The highest concentrations of irrecoverable carbon in the United Kingdom are in peatlands, where carbon is built up in waterlogged soils. Locally called “bogs,” these peatlands are a signature piece of the Scottish landscape and heritage, covering around 2 million hectares. "Blanket bogs" are found in only a few parts of the world where cool, wet, oceanic climates create conditions for bog mosses and other plants to break down very slowly, storing carbon over thousands of years. The bogs also support breeding grounds for birds.
- The country boundaries shown on this map are recognized by the country authority.
- The carbon breakdown numbers are summarized according to MarineRegions.org, which is in the public domain. This may result in islands, territories and boundaries that do not accord strictly with those protocols used by the UN and other international organizations. The boundaries and territory/country names used by CI or by CI's partner organizations and contributors in this research do not imply endorsement or acceptance by CI of those boundaries or country names.
- Protected area stats are from the World Database on Protected Areas, available at: www.protectedplanet.net. This spatial database is publicly available and displayed on https://irrecoverable.resilienceatlas.org/.
- Indigenous & community lands stats are from spatial data compiled by the ICCA Consortium in 2021. This spatial dataset is extensive but not comprehensive, and it is not publicly available due to sensitivities with displaying Indigenous & community lands. More information can be found at: https://report.territoriesoflife.org/. Protected areas and Indigenous & community lands are not mutually exclusive and may overlap.
- ‘Loss from 2011-2020’ is derived from Hansen et al.’s spatial data on annual tree cover loss, which underpins Global Forest Watch (https://www.globalforestwatch.org/). We found that 83% of irrecoverable lands are tree-covered, so this dataset captures the majority but not all irrecoverable carbon loss globally.
- Species numbers are derived from the habitat ranges of 10,744 species of birds, 5,219 mammals, 4,462 reptiles, and 6,254 amphibians. Thousands of scientists contribute to this data through IUCN (https://www.iucnredlist.org/) and BirdLife International. We included only those species whose habitat ranges had at least 100 sq km overlap with irrecoverable carbon lands.