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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has for the planting of trees and other natural carbon capturing plants.

We have planted 15 million trees since 2010, and the Government is committed to planting 11 million trees in the countryside, and one million trees in our towns and cities, in this Parliament. We are confident that this commitment will be met with over three million trees planted in this Parliament to date. The Government has made major commitments to help meet these targets: in January last year, the Prime Minister announced £5.7 million to launch the new Northern Forest; and in the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced £50 million to support the planting of new woodlands through the Woodland Carbon Guarantee, together with £10 million to plant new trees in our towns and cities through the urban trees challenge fund.

In addition to tree planting, the UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy set out plans for the restoration of peatland. Peatlands store huge quantities of carbon as plant matter is transformed into peat. In April 2018, £10 million of funding for peatland restoration was allocated to four large-scale peatland restoration projects in England. The Government will be publishing an England Peat Strategy later this year.