There has been much interest in the role that trees can play in capturing and storing carbon, and the issue is rapidly rising up the agenda once more.
Deforestation is a significant source of global emissions: over the next five years emissions arising from deforestation will exceed those made from every aviation emission from the Wright brothers through to 2025. Preventing further loss of global forests must be central to the move towards a low carbon society.
Trees can also play a role in capturing atmospheric carbon and storing it for long periods: trees are the original CCS technology. They are currently the most cost effective and readily expandable means of drawing CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Drastic and rapid cuts in emissions are vital and our view is that the primary focus must be on making those reductions. However, we recognise that it is not always cost effective to make reductions at source and that more might be achieved through "off site" activities such as woodland creation. Nevertheless, planting trees should not be seen as an excuse for inaction in other areas.
The idea that emissions reductions can be mitigated through woodland creation stems from the fact that the effects of GHG emissions are felt globally; it therefore follows that emissions reductions can take place elsewhere, a process known as “carbon offsetting”.
Offset schemes usually involve avoiding further GHG emissions. For example, capturing methane at a landfill site – a relatively easy operation – might be a cheaper way to avoid emitting a given amount of CO2e than making further efficiencies at an already energy efficient office building.
Planting trees is one of the few carbon offsetting schemes that actually involves the sequestration, or removal, of atmospheric carbon.
However, all domestic woodland creation is reported under the UK Government's legally binding Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction commitments. This means that it is not currently possible to generate "tradeable" carbon credits because there is a potential double counting issue.
As a consequence the Forestry Commission has demanded that the use of the word "offset" is avoided. This of course has no impact on the ability of trees to lock up carbon, and as far as we are concerned it would not be possible to purchase land, plant trees and maintain and care for them without the additional funding through Woodland Carbon.
We apply the same set of principles -- additionality, permanence and verification -- to our Woodland Carbon sequestration project as would be applied to the highest quality offsetting scheme elsewhere on the planet.
The UK Government has the power to resolve this confusion, which we view as a barrier to woodland creation in the UK, and it is our hope that it uses it to provide clarity and transparency around domestic carbon sequestration projects.
Return to carbon FAQ index