London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

Britain aims to plant 143 million new trees a YEAR by 2035

Britain aims to plant 143 million new trees a YEAR by 2035

The UK's climate change advisory committee insists that tree cover must rise to 20 per cent so that the country can hit its legal pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The number of new trees planted across the UK per year is set to rise to 143 million by 2035 in a massive bid to meet climate targets.

The ambitious programme, easily the biggest in 50 years, will see a doubling of the planting of woodland to almost 80 million in the next four years.

Due to be published in the next two weeks, the plan will controversially turn swathes of farmland, areas of natural beauty and even national parks into forest.

The initial focus is cities and towns, with the Government today announcing an 'urban tree challenge fund' that will see 44,000 trees planted near schools, hospitals and in deprived areas, the Sunday Times reports.

Forestry Minister Lord Goldsmith said the new scheme met the Tory manifesto commitment to have 'every new street lined with trees'.

He told the newspaper: 'The pandemic has shown just how important it is to experience nature in our daily lives.

'We need to do everything we can to protect and nurture the natural world around us, including the trees which line the streets and parks of our towns and cities.'

Woodland covers 13 per cent of the UK landmass, compared with 31 per cent in France and 30 per cent in Germany.

The Government's climate change advisory committee insists that tree cover must rise to 20 per cent so that the country can hit its legal pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Forestry Minister Lord Goldsmith said the new scheme complemented the Tory manifesto commitment to have 'every new street lined with trees'


However, the body claims that a fifth of agricultural land will need to shift from food production to tree planting to realise this aim.

Sir William Worsley, chairman of the Forestry Commission, admitted that finding land to plant is a 'real challenge because we live in a small country'.

He added: 'We've got to find the right land. It's not the top of our moors, it's not on deep peatland. But there's a lot of poor sheep land on the sides of the valleys that could well be suitable for tree planting.'

But climate campaign group Friends of the Earth called on the Government to go further by pushing tree cover up to 26 per cent.

'With the scale of the climate crisis that we face the level of ambition needs to be much greater,' environmentalist Danny Gross said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×