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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what advice he has sought from the Committee on Climate Change on tree-planting targets required to help meet UK climate change obligations.

The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, responds to advice from the Committee on Climate Change and sets out how we will continue to decarbonise the UK to meet our climate mitigation obligations. The Strategy confirmed the important role of tree planting in contributing 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 and in their annual progress report, published on 28 June 2018. We are developing a long-term trajectory for woodland planting to contribute to 5-year carbon budgets and deliver the 2060 aspiration to increase woodland cover in England to 12%.