The UK government has recently announced renewed plans for its £1bn CCS scheme – shortlisting four coal fired power stations on which to use the technology – as reported in the Guardian newspaper.

It is not quite clear how much CO2 the project could sequester, perhaps 10-15mtCO2? Who knows, but it will probably cost in the order of £50-100 per tCO2 stored.

The Stern Review told us in 2007 that planting new forests was one of the most cost effective ways to sequester CO2, costing about £10 per tCO2 stored. As one of Europe’s least forested member states (Germany has more than twice the forest coverage of the UK) the UK should embark on a campaign of afforestation and reforestation, increasing our tree numbers by 25% could remove about 4mtCO2 every year from our environment. It would be a bargain at £40m…and enhance the countryside at the same time.

Whilst tree planting alone won’t be enough to solve all of our CO2 problem surely it should not be ignored?

Image courtesy of the Guardian newspaper