Tree planting in UK 'must double to tackle climate change'

(The Guardian, 15 Nov 2018) Government advisers call for radical changes, including turning farmland into forests.

Tree planting must double by 2020 as part of radical changes to land use in the UK, according to the government’s advisers on climate change.

New forests would lock up carbon but also help to limit the more frequent floods expected with global warming.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said land currently used to produce food would need to be converted to woodland, growing crops to produce energy and for new homes to accommodate the growing population. Up to 17% of cropland and 30% of grassland could be converted, the report says.

Protecting and restoring peatland, a huge store of carbon, is also vital, as is ensuring no food waste went to landfill by 2025, but is instead used to generate energy, it adds.

The CCC said that for decades food production had been rewarded with subsidies ahead of other public goods that land could provide, but that Brexit provided an opportunity to reward landowners for helping to fight climate change and its impacts as well as supporting wildlife.

External link

The Guardian, 15 Nov 2018: Tree planting in UK 'must double to tackle climate change'