4th June 2013

Reforestation will not prevent climate change

Leading experts on climate change have dismissed the idea that planting trees can offset carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

Professor Brendan Mackey, of Griffith University, is the lead author of an international study involving researchers from Australia and the UK. Their findings appear in "Untangling the confusion around land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy," published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"While protecting and restoring natural forests is part of the solution, the reality is that for all practical purposes fossil fuel CO2 emissions are irreversible," Mackey said.

These findings highlight the urgent need for policymakers worldwide to re-think the issue as many decision-makers, national and internationally, assume that fossil fuel emissions can be offset through sequestering carbon by planting trees and other land management practices.

"There is a danger in believing that land carbon sinks can solve the problem of atmospheric carbon emissions because this legitimises the on-going use of fossil fuels," Mackey said.

The study found that protecting natural forests avoids emissions that would otherwise result from logging and land clearing while also conserving biodiversity. Restoring degraded ecosystems or planting new forests helps store some of the CO2 that was emitted from past land use activities.

"These land management actions should be rewarded as they are an important part of the solution," Mackay said. "However, no amount of reforestation or growing of new trees will ultimately off-set continuing CO2 emissions, due to environmental constraints on plant growth, and the large amounts of remaining fossil fuel reserves. Unfortunately there is no option but to cut fossil fuel emissions deeply, as one-third of CO2 stays in the atmosphere for 2 to 20 millennia."

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