Commercial afforestation can deliver effective climate change mitigation under multiple decarbonisation pathways.

ABSTRACT: Afforestation is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategy but the efficacy of commercial forestry is disputed. Here, we calculate the potential GHG mitigation of a UK national planting strategy of 30,000 ha yr^-1 from 2020 to 2050, using dynamic life cycle assessment. What-if scenarios vary: conifer-broadleaf composition, harvesting, product breakouts, and decarbonisation of substituted energy and materials, to estimate 100-year GHG mitigation. Here we find forest growth rate is the most important determinant of cumulative mitigation by 2120, irrespective of whether trees are harvested. A national planting strategy of commercial forest could mitigate 1.64 Pg CO₂e by 2120 (cumulative), compared with 0.54-1.72 Pg CO₂e for planting only conservatio

SUBMITTER: Forster EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8219817 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature