Peat burns on grouse moors in Yorkshire ahead of of Cop26

Alarming footage shows peatlands on grouse estates being set on fire weeks ahead of Cop26.

Over 100 fires have been reported on carbon-rich peatlands in four days, conservation organisations have claimed, despite a government ban on the practice.

Moorlands have long been burnt to stimulate the growth of fresh heather on which red grouse reared for shooting, feed.

But the practice was recently outlawed in an effort to preserve the peat, which is globally threatened despite storing twice as much carbon than all the world’s forests combined.

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