Abstract
A transition to renewable energy can help mitigate global climate change. However, the widespread deployment of wind and solar technologies raises concerns about their impacts, from visual amenity to food production. Further, the renewable transition alone is insufficient to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. We need active removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as well as emissions reductions. Such removals can be enabled by nature-based solutions, such as habitat creation and restoration, which concurrently help biodiversity. In a UK case study, we show that ambitious renewable deployment targets require little land, in addition to what is needed for nature-based solutions, and can avoid the most productive farmland to minimize the impact on food production. Even in such a densely populated country with many competing land-use interests, integrated land-use decisions could help to simultaneously achieve net-zero targets, nature recovery, and maintenance of food production.