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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which Committee on Climate Change scenario is being used to calculate any costs associated with afforestation and tree planting outside of woodlands to meet the UK’s net zero target.

Tree planting will play an important role in meeting net zero greenhouse gas emissions. By early next year we will consult on a Tree Strategy for England which will consider tree planting rates in the context of net zero.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) estimate the cost of net zero to be 1-2% of GDP in 2050, and the Government’s initial high-level analysis falls within the same range. These figures do not include the significant benefits from decarbonising the economy, including opportunities from clean growth, which could offset a proportion, or potentially all of these costs.

HMT has accepted the CCC’s recommendation for HMT to conduct a review into the costs of decarbonisation, the world’s first comprehensive review by a finance ministry into the costs of transitioning to a net zero economy.