Tree Planting Alone Can’t Compensate for Global Fossil Fuel Emissions

Achieving sufficient tree planting to counterbalance the climate effects of fossil fuel combustion is nearly unfeasible. The land required to offset around 182 billion tonnes of carbon contained in the reserves of the world’s leading fossil fuel companies exceeds the available area of North and Central America combined.

In a study, Alain Naef from France’s Essec Business School, along with his team, assessed the economic viability of offsetting the carbon emissions originating from the oil, gas, and coal reserves owned by the top 200 fossil fuel firms.

The research indicates that newly planted trees must cover an area greater than 24.75 million square kilometers, equivalent to all land in North, Central, and South America, to mitigate the effects of burning these fossil fuel reserves.

Such a scale of afforestation is impractical, necessitating significant relocations of communities, agricultural lands, and other existing ecosystems.

“There isn’t enough available land to accommodate the requisite planting needed to offset emissions tied to fossil fuels,” states Rich Collet White, a British energy analyst at Carbon Tracker. “Attempting to achieve such extensive planting could drive food prices up due to farmland being converted to forest, or lead to deforestation elsewhere.”

Simultaneously, the financial implications of implementing such widespread planting initiatives are staggering. The cost to plant trees is approximately $16 per tonne equivalent of carbon offset. At this rate, it was calculated that offsetting emissions from fossil fuel reserves using trees could negate the entire market value of 64% of the largest fossil fuel corporations, excluding the costs associated with land acquisition.

If higher carbon prices highlight the adverse social and economic effects of burning fossil fuels, the results indicate that many companies might face bankruptcy.

Naef and his associates recognize the slim probability of fossil fuel companies opting to voluntarily offset reserve emissions. They assert that their study is more of a thought experiment aimed at indicating why offsets shouldn’t be leveraged to allow the fossil fuel industry to persist. “The crucial takeaway from this paper is that oil and gas should remain untapped underground,” Naef emphasized during a press briefing on June 18th.

Tim Leyden, representing Trillion Trees, a UK-based tree planting initiative, concurs. “Tree planting should not serve as a substitute for the urgent cessation of fossil fuel use nor as a strategy for decarbonizing our economy,” he asserts.