Healthy peat is dark brown to almost black, clay-like in texture, and moldable — a sign it can retain large volumes of water. Functioning peatlands are typically waterlogged due to a high water table and support a rich mix of peat-forming vegetation, such as sphagnum mosses, alongside other plant species. This diverse habitat, in turn, sustains a wide variety of wildlife.

Unhealthy peat is often light brown, very crumbly and will not hold water. Other signs include:

• Erosion: Visible tufts of peat indicate where the surrounding peat has been completely eroded.
• Bare peat: Exposed peat surfaces are open to the air, causing oxidation and carbon loss.
• Lack of vegetation: The absence of peat-forming plants like sphagnum mosses signals poor peatland health.

Decades of intensive land management, including drainage, arable farming, atmospheric pollution, peat extraction, muirburn, and overgrazing, have damaged around 80% of the UK’s peatlands. These degraded peatlands are drying out and oxidising, releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases that had been stored for hundreds or even thousands of years.

In 2017, degraded peatlands in the UK were estimated to emit 23 million tonnes of CO₂e annually, about 1 in every 20 tonnes of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that year.

Protecting remaining peatlands and restoring their healthy function is essential for the UK to meet its climate targets. For example, the carbon stored in Scottish peatland soils alone is equivalent to 140 years’ worth of Scotland’s total annual GHG emissions.

Functioning peatland ecosystems are some of the most carbon-rich terrestrial ecosystems on earth, storing up to 30 times more carbon per hectare than a healthy tropical rainforest. Globally, peatlands lock up an estimated 550 billion tonnes of CO₂e. To put this figure into context, the entirety of global CO2 emissions in 2019 was 36.44 billion metric tonnes.

In the UK, as a result of decades of land management practices that have disrupted ecosystem processes, 80% of peatlands are degraded. Where peatlands could be an effective natural carbon sink, UK peatlands are currently emitting vast quantities of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, accounting for at least 3.5% of the UK’s total emissions.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that fully restoring the UK’s degraded peatlands could cost £8–22 billion over the next century, but would save £109 billion in avoided carbon emissions alone. And the benefits go beyond carbon: healthy peatlands also improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and support biodiversity.

Read more about Peatlands on our Knowledge Hub

Peat is often used in two products commonly found in British homes: compost and whiskey.

Gardeners who are using multi-purpose compost, both for individual and commercial purposes, may be unaware that these products contain up to 90% peat. It’s been used by commercial growers and at-home gardeners since the mid-20th century. According to the BBC, “The sale of bagged compost accounts for 50% of extracted peat sold in the UK…”

Despite peat-free compost alternatives existing, in 2022, the UK was the 10th largest importer of peat in the world, primarily from Ireland and the Netherlands. On average, annual UK peat sales would fill 29,000 large shipping containers and could release up to 850,000 tonnes of CO2.

The Scotch Whisky industry uses peat to give barley a distinctive smoky character during malting, creating the unique peaty flavour of their whiskies.

A ban on peat-containing products was meant to come into effect in 2024; however, the UK government recently confirmed that “while some peat-containing products will be banned from shelves in 2027, others will be exempt from a ban until 2030.” Wildlife Trust

Burning peat as a fuel also still exists, especially in island communities where firewood, mains gas, or other fuel types are not easily accessible.