Increase tree planting to help meet UK’s emissions reduction targets, say scientists

The study – believed to be the first of its kind in the world –has concluded that if an extra four per cent of the UK’s land were planted with new woodland over the next 40 years, it could be locking up 10 per cent of the nation’s predicted greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the 2050s.

Woodland covers just 12 per cent of land in the UK, compared to the European average of 37 per cent.

The independent panel of scientists that carried out the national assessment found that an appropriate planting of 23,000 hectares a year – equivalent to about 30,000 football pitches – over 40 years would mean increasing tree planting by 200 per cent on current levels, but would only require a four per cent coverage of UK land.

“All our research points to the fact that forestry can make a significant and cost-effective contribution to meeting the UK’s challenging emissions reduction targets,” commented panel chair Professor Sir David Read, recently vice-president of the Royal Society and currently Emeritus Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. “By increasing our tree cover we can lock up carbon directly. By using more wood for fuel and construction materials we can make savings by using less gas, oil and coal, and by substituting sustainably produced timber for less climate-friendly materials.

The report found a well as abating GHG emissions cost-effectively, woodland creation would also help with the the sustainable production of woodfuel, which has the potential to save the equivalent of approximately seven million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by replacing fossil fuels within the next five years.

The report, which was commissioned by the the Forestry Commission, said that such a planting would mean looking at the possible introduction of other species of trees to the UK and that woodland planting should be targeted to places where people live and gather, such as town and local centres which currently have low tree cover.

New woodland establishment in the UK has averaged about 9000 hectares a year over the past five years.

The UK is on a course to reduce its GHG emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

To read the report go to: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-7y4gn9.