This article appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter

The question of trees and Net Zero is often a thorny one. Which trees, where? Is woodland regeneration better than planting? And, more importantly, is the whole thing part of a carbon credit greenwash that is encouraging us to think we are doing something while we go on burning fossil fuels> Meanwhile chewing up Scotland’s land market?

A paper published this week is another reminder of the fact that the trees and carbon story is not always a simple Net Zero boon. Scientists from The James Hutton Institute warned that initiatives that promote “self-establishing trees” - essentially woodland spread via self-seeding - - “may not always lead to carbon capture at the decadal timescales relevant to achieving net zero and mitigating climate change”.

Trees take longer than that to make a difference. Their time frame doesn't bend to the kind of short spans we humans think of as the long term of politics, international agreements and climate targets.

Studies like these serve as a reminder of the slowness of carbon removal by growing forestry - what's burned in a few moments, is only absorbed back........

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