Tree-planting must be ramped up on a huge scale to help the UK effectively cancel out its carbon emissions and tackle wildlife losses, conservationists have told the government.

The Woodland Trust has published an emergency tree plan urging ministers to more than double rates of planting, protect what Britain already has and work to prevent plant diseases.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each need to set new annual targets that will put the UK as a whole on track to have almost one-fifth (19 per cent) of its land covered by trees and woodland by 2050, the trust says.

Councils also need to create similar plans to identify land for trees and set annual expansion targets, while protecting existing trees in their areas, it added.

The Woodland Trust also said all new housebuilding developments must have one-third of their land covered with canopy, by retaining mature trees and planting native, UK-sourced species.

Woodland stores large amounts of carbon, and studies suggest older forests absorb more carbon than younger ones.

The government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said up to 19 per cent of the country needs to be covered with trees by 2050 to help meet targets to absorb enough greenhouse gases for the UK to become carbon-neutral.

The UK has only 13 per cent tree cover, one of the lowest levels in Europe, which averages 37 per cent. Only about half of that is native woodland.

The CCC advice would require an extra 1.5 million total hectares (3.7 million acres) of woodland, or 1.5 billion trees in all, which would mean at least 30,000 hectares being planted every year. 

But the Woodland Trust has gone even further, arguing for an increase from the 13,390 hectares planted in 2018-19 across the UK, to about 35,000 hectares a year up to 2025, and then even bigger increases to meet the 2050 goal.

Its plan includes financial support for landowners to provide natural regeneration. 

Most new trees should be native species such as oak, which wildlife depends on, to help tackle both the climate and nature crises, the trust said.

Last summer the UK became the first major economy to commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 even though environmental experts had warned that target was too late to avert disastrous changes.

And before the election, all the big political parties rushed to back an increase in tree planting, while the government said it planned to increase planting rates to 30,000 hectares a year, meeting the CCC advice.

But Labour dropped a radical plan to reach net-zero carbon dioxide by 2030, revising its target to “well before 2050”.

The government came under fire when it handed only £30m in a spending round to “accelerate progress” on decarbonisation projects next year. Friends of the Earth said the sum was just 0.1 per cent of what was required, and “completely undermined” the UK’s commitment to cut greenhouse gases to zero overall by 2050. 

A separate government-commissioned report warned the UK would have to invest billions of pounds every year in greenhouse gas removal and conversion of swathes of land into forests. 

The Woodland Trust now says an emergency increase in public investment is needed for the project.

Darren Moorcroft, chief executive of the trust, said the picture had “never been bleaker”, with planting rates the lowest in decades, one in 10 wildlife and plant species at risk of extinction, and disease threatening to wipe out millions of trees.

“We’ve seen a lot of talk about trees and that is welcome, but we’ve yet to see the action that is required.

“We’ve left ourselves a phenomenal amount to do in a very short space of time. The moment of crisis has come and action needs to be taken this year,” he said

“Government needs bold policies and local authorities and landowners need the support to act swiftly and of a scale to expand tree cover across the UK,” he said.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We are proud of our record on woodland creation but we know there is still more we can do.

“Our crystal clear commitment to increase woodland cover and tree planting remains at the heart of our ambitious environmental programme.

“We plan to increase tree planting rates up to 30,000 hectares per year, across the UK, by 2025 – working closely with devolved authorities, communities and landowners to make this happen.”

At the weekend Boris Johnson was accused of making unrealistic promises about a key climate summit the UK is hosting this year, by pledging to pile pressure on “the whole world” to agree “enforceable limits” on carbon emissions.

Nottingham has declared its intention to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral city – by 2028, involving transforming transport, energy use, waste management and housing.

Additional reporting by PA

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