Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to establish the level of (1) the demand for carbon dioxide of the UK’s tree cover, and (2) the amount of carbon dioxide available to it.

The UK government is not currently undertaking any estimates of the demand for atmospheric carbon dioxide for the UK’s trees. However statistics published on behalf of the government by Forest Research estimate that the amount of carbon stored in UK forests is currently the equivalent of approximately 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

The current global carbon dioxide concentration is measured to be around 420 parts per million (0.042%), higher than at any time over at least the last 2 million years.