TREE planting must be "ramped up" to get the UK back on track to meet climate targets, advisers have urged.
The Climate Change Committee said woodland creation rates will need to "more than double" to get as close to the country's annual goal of 30,000 hectares.
Members of the CCC argued that more "effective delivery mechanisms, complete with required funding, support, and plans to unlock private finance" are "urgently needed". While forestry is devolved, the report noted that all four nations must provide "more effective" policies to step up woodland creation.
Writing in the report, officials argued: "Rates of tree planting and peatland restoration need to increase in the near term.
"There is a time lag between planting a tree and its ability to sequester large volumes of CO2. As a result of this, large numbers of trees need to be planted in the 2020s in order to make the required contribution to achieving future carbon budgets and Net Zero in 2050."
The UK did create a modern-day high 21,000 ha of new woodland in the 12 months prior to the end of March 2024, substantially more than recent years. However, this is likely to fall in the year ahead due to budget cuts in Scotland, which was responsible for 15,000 ha of the UK-wide total.
The report – published on Thursday – comes as the wait goes on for Defra to appoint a new forestry minister.
"We need clear leadership to steer land management in the right direction," said influential forester Andrew Heald. "Steve [Reed, environment secretary], make a decision."
Responding to the report, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband claimed it laid bare the failures of the previous government, and said Labour was “wasting no time” delivering on its mission to make Britain a clean-energy superpower. Ministers have promised to "mobilise a Tree Taskforce" and create three new National Forests to close the current gap in woodland-creation performance.
The report comes against a backdrop of rising climate impacts, with the wettest 18 months on record in England hitting agricultural production, as well as falling costs of key low-carbon technologies and a global scramble to secure investment to drive economic growth.
While the committee’s leaders said they welcomed action already taken by the new Labour Government, for example in lifting the de facto ban on onshore wind, the focus needs to extend beyond electricity.
They called for rapid progress on electric cars, heat pumps and tree planting, all of which are off-track to meet the UK’s climate target.
The committee has set out 10 priority actions the new Government should take this year, including making electricity cheaper by removing levies that pay for renewables, insulation and fuel poverty from electricity bills.
It also called for the new Government to reverse recent policy rollbacks including the decision to exempt 20% of homes from a new gas boiler phase-out by 2035, the removal of obligations on landlords to improve energy efficiency and pushing back the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales.
The Tories rowed back on the green policies – claiming the changes would save people from costs of net zero – as they tried to draw dividing lines with Labour, which made clean energy a central “mission” of its offer to the country.
But the committee warned that polling shows the UK public has “no appetite for climate division”, echoing other recent surveys suggesting that stepping back on climate measures was not a vote winner.
And the committee’s acting chief executive Dr James Richardson said: “These rollbacks were unhelpful, they will slow progress, they don’t help households with high energy costs nor do they help the UK energy security.
“To do that we need to accelerate the move away from fossil fuels.”
Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the Climate Change Committee, said: “The transition to net zero can deliver investment, lower bills and energy security. It will help the UK keep its place on the world stage.
“It is a way for this Government to serve both the people of today and the people of tomorrow.”
Mr Miliband said the report showed the country was off track to meet targets, while the country paid the price with higher bills and energy insecurity.
“The good news is that this report confirms that a clean-energy future is the best way to make Britain energy independent, cut bills, create good jobs, and tackle the climate crisis,” he said.
“That is why the Government is wasting no time in delivering our mission.
“In just one week, we have scrapped the nine-year onshore wind ban, established a National Wealth Fund, and consented more solar power than has been installed over the past year.
“This action will accelerate us towards meeting our targets, as we drive forward in our mission to make Britain a clean-energy superpower.”
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