Planting trees and fossil fuel offsets - part 1

"Does planting trees offset fossil fuel emissions?"

Seminar held in August 2013.

Presentation from Professor Brendan Mackey.

Solving the climate change problem demands achieving deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is considerable confusion about the relative importance of land carbon compared with fossil fuel emissions. In this seminar, Professor Mackey discusses some of the questions that arise in the land sector including whether - planting trees, changing farming practices, and protecting forests - offset fossil fuel emissions? And if not, should we be worried about land carbon emissions?  Professor Mackey draws upon a recent publication of his and his colleagues in the journal Nature Climate Change to review current understanding about human perturbation of the global carbon cycle, the role of land carbon, and some of the implications for national and international mitigation policy.