Large companies are buying up whole farms in Ceredigion to plant trees to offset their carbon footprint, a debate in Westminster has heard, with the county’s MP warning the moves “are putting rural life at risk.”

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake Plaid Cymru’s Environment, Food & Rural Affairs spokesperson in Westminster - lead a debate in Parliament last week on the purchase of agricultural land for carbon offsetting by large companies.

The debate heard that farmers in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and south Powys have reported “entire farms have been purchased by major international companies to offset their carbon footprint.”

Carbon offsetting is the idea that businesses can offset their environmental impact by planting trees or supporting other forms of habitat restoration in order to ‘cancel out’ the damage they do to the environment.

However, offsetting schemes have been criticised by environmental organisations such as Greenpeace for providing “a good story that allows companies to swerve away from taking meaningful action on their carbon emissions.”

Mr Lake said that such developments could “risk rural communities and the Welsh language being undermined for the sake of a greenwashed business-as-usual by large corporations”.

In his speech, he argued that the policy principle of “the right tree in the right place” must be upheld, and that the carbon offset market should be regulated in order to ensure that tree planting is done in such a way that benefits local biodiversity and communities.

Following the debate, Mr Lake said that while “tree planting has a crucial role in helping us address the climate and biodiversity crisis”, “we must ensure that it is properly planned and regulated in order to ensure that the benefits are fully realised, and to avoid unintended consequences for rural communities.”

“This debate was an opportunity to draw attention to the dangers of taking an overly simplistic approach to carbon offsetting, and to explore the potential pitfalls of encouraging a system that focuses on offsetting as opposed to fundamentally reducing emissions,” he said.

“Tackling climate change should not be an opportunity for large companies to greenwash their emissions at the expense of rural communities.

“Tree planting projects will best succeed where they are delivered by local groups and farmers working alongside the Welsh Government, and with an eye not only to sequestering carbon and promoting biodiversity, but also ensuring that local communities, not multinational corporations, benefit from the income derived from them.

“Our natural resources are invaluable assets, and so we cannot allow them to be exploited yet again by large businesses attempting to ‘greenwash’ their carbon credentials without the slightest concern for rural communities - or the Welsh language, which depends so much on their continued vitality.”

Greenpeace has said “protecting forests and restoring natural ecosystems is vital, but we should be doing that as well as cutting emissions directly, not as a substitute.”