Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to consult the Committee on Climate Change on the tree-planting targets required in England to meet the UK's climate change commitments.

The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, sets out how we will decarbonise the UK. The Strategy identified the important role for tree planting to contribute to carbon budget commitments, particularly in later carbon budget periods.

The Committee on Climate Change emphasised the importance of tree planting in its independent assessment of the Strategy, published in January this year. Furthermore, in April the government announced plans to ask the Committee on Climate Change to report on the implications of the Paris Agreement's target.