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By Jack Graham [[link removed]] | Climate change and nature correspondent, UK

You can call me Al(bedo)

As a climate journalist, people often ask me: shouldn’t we just plant loads of trees?

The simplicity of digging spades into soil and turning landscapes leafy green is very appealing. Trees suck in carbon, so surely we should be planting as many as we can?

If only it were that easy. This week, I spoke to researchers who found that estimates of the climate impact of restoring tree cover [[link removed]] are too high - by up to 81%.

That’s because the pros of new planting could be offset by an often unforeseen con: fresh tree cover can change the ability of the earth's surface to reflect sunlight back into space, known as the albedo effect.

For example, if a forest is planted where there was previously just snow cover, the land will reflect less solar radiation. That can negate the climate benefits of trees sucking in CO2.

Overall, trees play a huge role as "carbon sinks", with the world's forests absorbing a net 7.6 billion tonnes [[link removed]] of CO2 per year. That's about 1.5 times the annual emissions of the United States.

But because of our friend Al(bedo) [[link removed]], the climate benefits or drawbacks of reforestation depend on the location, said the researchers from Clark University, The Nature Conservancy and ETH-Zurich, a Swiss university.

Their conclusion: we ought to be far more selective about where we restore trees. So where should we be planting trees, and why?

A Malaysian fisherman plants mangrove saplings in Sungai Acheh in Penang, Malaysia December 28, 2021. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Beh Lih Yi

That old chestnut

The researchers have pinpointed exactly where reforestation would have a positive or negative climate impact globally. In general, restoring trees in the tropics, such as the Amazon or Congo Basin, will have a large net climate impact whereas tree planting in places like temperate grasslands or savannahs would cause more warming.

But all this is not to say we shouldn't plant trees, they were at pains to add.

"It remains one of the most cost-effective, scalable carbon removal strategies that we have," said Susan Cook-Patton, a co-author of the study and senior forest restoration scientist at The Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based non-profit.

And there are plenty of other reasons to plant trees, like protecting biodiversity, purifying the air by filtering out pollutants, or boosting mental health.

So don't hang up your spade quite yet.

See you next week,

Jack

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Reading the ruins of Amazon fires, scientists see crisis ahead [[link removed]]

Smoke signals from Amazon raise fears of global tipping point on climate change

Time to fix broken food systems - Sierra Leone president [[link removed]]

Countries must accelerate delivery of sustainable and healthy food systems, writes Julius Maada Bio

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