Forest restoration and tree-planting – What impact for climate change mitigation?

The EU has adopted ambitious new targets to curb climate change, with a pledge to make them legally binding. Under a new law agreed in 2021 between Member States and the European Parliament, the bloc will cut carbon emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. Globally, forests are our lungs and life-support system, covering 30% of the Earth’s land area and hosting 80% of its biodiversity. Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to many scientists. Although planting new trees alone cannot solve climate change, when combined with well-thought out restoration of existing forests and reducing emissions, tree planting can play a significant role.