Tree-planting is one of the government’s key strategies for fighting the climate crisis, but ministers have got off to a slow start that shows little sign of speeding up, according to the latest figures: just £5.2m will be spent on new trees in England under the countryside stewardship scheme for the current financial year.
That is enough for only 1,260 hectares, according to Friends of the Earth, which is calling for far more effort on tree-planting to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
By the end of this parliament, by current plans – revealed in the answer to a parliamentary question by the Labour MP Kerry McCarthy – about £27m will be spent, enough for about 6,500 hectares of forest.
These sums fall far short of the 30,000 hectares of new trees that the government has pledged.
Friend of the Earth revealed last year that ministers were failing to meet targets on trees, despite assurances from the government that forestry would form a central plank of the push to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Less than £2 per person was being spent on forestry, research found.
Each of the major parties included substantial tree-planting pledges in their manifestos at last autumn’s general election. However, details from the government on how this will be achieved have so far been scant.
The agriculture bill currently progressing through parliament will put in place a broad legal framework for rewarding farmers for providing public goods, such as tree planting, but there have been no concrete plans yet from ministers on how much farmers can expect to be paid, when and how such schemes will be managed.
There are also increasing questions over the strategy, which has the backing in principle of many environmental groups, but which must be worked out in careful detail if new forests are to be sited in the right places, so as to preserve existing habitats and not lead to further unintended emissions.
For instance, experts warned the Guardian this week that commercial forests would result in little gain in the UK’s ability to store carbon. They also warned that trees planted in the wrong places could increase emissions – for instance, planting trees in some peatland dries out the peat and causes it to release carbon into the air.
Other plantations can threaten local birds and wildlife if not carefully managed.
Guy Shrubsole, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, called on the government to increase funding for forestry and double tree cover in the UK, which is sparsely wooded compared with comparable European countries, with only about 13% tree cover.
He said: “Ministers love to talk about planting more trees to fight the climate emergency, but seem unprepared to put their money where their mouth is. We have enough land but not yet the political will.”
He called on the chancellor of the exchequer to act in Wednesday’s budget. “This budget is an opportunity to free up funding to create and maintain woodlands. Nature benefits from more trees, people feel better, and of course trees help combat climate change so there is absolutely no excuse to skimp on this funding.”
