23/02/2019

Australia Will Plant 1 Billion Trees To Combat Climate Change

Global Citizen - Madeleine Keck

The tree-planting initiative will help move Australia closer to the Paris climate agreement targets.
Australia will plant 1 billion trees by 2050 in an effort to fight climate change. The new trees are expected to remove 18 million tons of greenhouse gases from the environment each year between now and 2030. Casey Horner Unsplash
Australia has set an ambitious target to plant 1 billion trees by 2050 in an effort to fight climate change, enhance natural landscapes, and boost the nation’s overall economic prosperity.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the scheme, part of a new National Forest Industries Plan, will remove 18 million tons of greenhouse gases from the environment each year between now and 2030 and, in turn, allow Australia to meet its Paris climate agreement targets.
“Australia’s forest industries are part of the solution to climate change,” Morrison announced in a statement. “I'm interested in growing more trees and growing more jobs — it's as simple as that.”
According to Morrison, the AUD 12.5 million tree planting initiative will work to support tens of thousands of jobs.
“Around 52,000 Australians are directly employed in growing and processing our forest products,” he announced. “Tens of thousands of additional jobs are indirectly supported by a sector that contributes more than AUD 23 billion to the national economy.”
Four preliminary tree planting hubs will be set up in New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, and along the South Australia and Victoria border. An additional five hubs will be developed in 2020.
The new measures follow a recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which revealed Australia needed to sharply cut carbon emissions in order to honor its promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% by 2030. The nation currently creates over 500 million tons of CO2-equivalent each year.
"Australia’s emissions are projected to increase by 2030,” the OECD report stated. “Australia needs to develop a long-term strategy that integrates energy and climate policies. The country will fall short of its climate targets without a major effort to move to a low-carbon model.”
Despite the stark findings, Morrison has long remained confident Australia will meet the targets. With the new tree planting initiative in tow, it seems Australia could be closer than ever to making the climate objectives a reality.
“If there’s anything that Australia should be known for, it is that when we make commitments, we stick with them,” he stated. “We will meet our 2030 Paris climate agreement targets at a canter.”

Links
at No comments:

Massive Restoration Of World’s Forests Would Cancel Out A Decade Of CO2 Emissions, Analysis Suggests

The Independent - Josh Gabbatiss

New findings suggest trees are 'our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change', says scientist

Trees already store an enormous amount of carbon, and planting more would suck more CO2 from the atmosphere

Replenishing the world’s forests on a grand scale would suck enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cancel out a decade of human emissions, according to an ambitious new study.
Scientists have established there is room for an additional 1.2 trillion trees to grow in parks, woods and abandoned land across the planet.
If such a goal were accomplished, ecologist Dr Thomas Crowther said it would outstrip every other method for tackling climate change – from building wind turbines to vegetarian diets.
Lack of accurate information meant for years experts severely underestimated the number of trees on Earth.
Combining data from ground-based surveys and satellites, Dr Crowther and his colleagues arrived at a figure of three trillion – over seven times more than a previous Nasa estimate.
Parliament Square, London on February 15. PA
The same approach, using machine learning and AI to analyse the enormous data set, allowed the researchers to predict the number of trees that could feasibly be planted in empty patches around the world.
Dr Crowther said undervaluing trees means scientists have also been massively underestimating the potential for forests to combat climate change.
Project Drawdown, a group that compares the merits of different emission-cutting techniques, currently places onshore wind power and improved recycling of fridges and air conditioners at the top of its list.
If rolled out on a realistic scale, each of these techniques would cut over 80 gigatons of emissions, while growing forests languishes in 15th place with a saving of just 18 gigatons.
New research undertaken by Dr Crowther has used the 1.2 billion figure to estimate the potential scale of carbon capture that could be achieved by planting trees, and reveal their true potential.
“There’s 400 gigatons now, in the 3 trillion trees, and if you were to scale that up by another trillion trees that’s in the order of hundreds of gigatons captured from the atmosphere – at least 10 years of anthropogenic emissions completely wiped out,” he said.
While the exact figures are yet to be released, he said trees had emerged as “our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change”. Dr Crowther discussed his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Washington DC.
Full restoration of all sites identified is clearly unrealistic, but tree planting is increasingly being recognised as a critical activity to preserve life on Earth
The United Nations initially ran a project known as the Billion Tree Campaign, but in light of Dr Crowther’s findings this has been renamed the Trillion Tree Campaign. It has already seen 17 billion trees planted in suitable locations around the world.
“We are not targeting urban or agricultural area, just degraded or abandoned lands, and it has the potential to tackle the two greatest challenges of our time – climate change and biodiversity loss,” said Dr Crowther.
“It’s a beautiful thing because everyone can get involved. Trees literally just make people happier in urban environments, they improve air quality, water quality, food quality, ecosystem service, it’s such an easy, tangible thing.”

Links
at No comments:

Planting 1.2 Trillion Trees Could Cancel Out A Decade of CO2 Emissions, Scientists Find

Yale Environment 360

Fox Maple Woods in Wisconsin. Joshua Mayer / Flickr


There is enough room in the world’s existing parks, forests, and abandoned land to plant 1.2 trillion additional trees, which would have the CO2 storage capacity to cancel out a decade of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new analysis by ecologist Thomas Crowther and colleagues at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.
The research, presented at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington, D.C., argues that planting additional trees is one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases.
Trees are “our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change,” Crowther told The Independent. Combining forest inventory data from 1.2 million locations around the world and satellite images, the scientists estimate there are 3 trillion trees on Earth — seven times more than previous estimates. But they also found that there is abundant space to restore millions of acres of additional forests, not counting urban and agricultural land.
“There’s 400 gigatons [of CO2 stored] now in the 3 trillion trees,” Crowther said. “If you were to scale that up by another trillion trees, that’s in the order of hundreds of gigatons captured from the atmosphere – at least 10 years of anthropogenic emissions completely wiped out.”
Tree planting is becoming an increasingly popular tool to combat climate change. The United Nations’ Trillion Tree Campaign has planted nearly 15 billion trees across the globe in recent years. And Australia has announced a plan to plant a billion more by 2050 as part of its effort to meet the country’s Paris Agreement climate targets.

Links
at No comments: