Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion, Ben Lake, has warned the UK Government that prime agricultural land is being sold to corporations who are “greenwashing” their emissions rather than lowering their carbon footprint.

During a debate in the House of Commons on the National Food Strategy and food security on Thursday (October 28), Mr Lake highlighted that the Green Finance Observatory had expressed concerns about such schemes, warning that they are “fundamentally not about mitigating climate change, or even about removing past emissions, but about enabling future emissions, about protecting economic growth and corporate profits”.

Carbon offsetting schemes allow businesses to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to balance out their own carbon footprints.

Welsh family farms are among those being bought up by multinational companies for credits under schemes such as the UK emissions trading scheme.

Mr Lake also warned that in the context of climate change, there is a more urgent need to become more self-sufficient in the production of fruit and vegetables.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Lake said: “We need proper land use planning and consideration across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

"I'm very concerned that when it comes to certain carbon offsetting schemes, prime agricultural land is being sold to corporations with intent of greenwashing their own emissions rather than actually contributing to the nationwide effort of reducing our carbon footprint.

“The Green Finance Observatory has expressed concerns with the current system - the UK emissions trading scheme - saying that 'the elephant in the room is that offsets are fundamentally not about mitigating climate change, or even about removing past emissions, but about enabling future emissions, about protecting economic growth and corporate profits’.

“Too often in Ceredigion, we have far too many farms that were prime agricultural productive land that have now being bought by these corporations not to reduce their own emissions but to greenwash them, to allow them to continue business as usual but in the process reduce our own productive capacity.”

In his speech, Mr Lake also called for greater self-sufficiency in the context of climate change.