Why Planting Trees Matters

Planting trees is a long-term investment for the climate.

That's the gist of a new paper published in Carbon Balance and Management by national and private researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

The paper highlights the uncertainties and limitations in banking carbon in tree plantations. But even the most conservative predictions, the authors say, "suggest that the cumulative sequestration potential up to 2100 can compensate for 5-7% of energy and industry related CO2 emissions."

That payoff, however, comes only after an investment. It takes time for trees to begin absorbing carbon, particularly because preparing land for a new plantation can actually release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The most effective plantations, according to the new computer model, would be in tropical nations.

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