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A forest area equivalent to the size of the Isle of Wight has not been planted because UK governments have failed to meet tree-planting goals since 2020, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
The latest figures from Forest Research show that only 15,700 hectares of trees were planted across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the past year.
This is roughly half the annual target of 30,000 hectares by 2025 that was set by the previous Conservative government.
After the 2019 general election, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) laid out a planned trajectory for England from 2020 up to 2025.
Tree-planting is a devolved issue, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had their own annual targets.
The chart below shows how, collectively, the nations have repeatedly missed these goals.
The cumulative impact of missed tree-planting targets over the past five years adds up to 36,429 hectares of unplanted forest, equal to nearly the size of the Isle of Wight.
This gap has grown since last year, when Carbon Brief analysis showed that the missed targets equated to a 22,129-hectare – or “Birmingham-sized” – forest.
As the location of most UK tree-planting, Scotland has also been the biggest contributor to the shortfall.
Shortly before the latest figures were released, government advisors at the Climate Change Committee (CCC) pointed to the UK’s “highest planting rate in two decades” in 2023-24. However, it noted its “concerns that recent reductions in funding for woodland creation in Scotland could reverse this trend”.
As the CCC predicted, just 8,470 hectares of trees were planted in Scotland in 2024-25, down from 15,040 hectares the previous year.
The nation had been targeting 18,000 hectares of annual woodland creation that year, although this was scaled back to 10,000 at the end of 2024 following a 41% cut to forestry grants.
Tree-planting rates across the other nations have steadily increased, but they have still not been on track to achieve their internal goals.
While the 30,000-hectare goal has not been formally abandoned, Labour did not mention it ahead of their election win last year.
Instead, the new government only committed to “establish[ing] three new national forests in England, whilst planting millions of trees and creating new woodlands”.
(Since winning the election, Labour has announced a tree-planting “taskforce”, in part to help meet a legally binding target of raising England’s tree cover to 16.5% by 2050.)
This followed repeated warnings from industry sources and independent analysts, over the course of the previous government, that the 30,000-hectare target was slipping out of reach.
Nevertheless, the CCC urged the new Labour government last year to move quickly to meet the goal. Earlier in 2025, the committee said it remains “vital” that tree-planting more than doubles to 37,000 hectares per year by 2030 to remain on track for the UK’s net-zero target.
Such rates are necessary because trees are needed to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and balance out remaining emissions from sectors that are not able to completely decarbonise by the 2050 net-zero date, the CCC says.
Around two-thirds of the trees planted last year were broadleaves rather than conifers, which grow faster and, therefore, absorb more CO2 in the short term. This is likely due to the decline in tree-planting across Scotland, which is home to most of the UK’s commercial conifer plantations.
Methodology
This article is an update of Carbon Brief analysis published ahead of the general election last year, which assessed progress towards tree-planting goals in the UK and the devolved administrations.
During the 2019 election campaign, the Conservatives committed to a UK-wide goal of creating 30,000 hectares of new woodland a year by the end of parliament, which was pegged for 2024-25. (Annual tree-planting figures are reported for the period between 1 April in one year and 31 March in the following year.)
Within this, England had a planned trajectory set out by Defra, Scotland had annual tree-planting goals, Wales targeted “at least” 2,000 hectares a year from 2020 and Northern Ireland set out annual goals in its “forest service business plans”.
For the final year, Carbon Brief compared the 2024-25 tree-planting rates recorded in Forest Research data to the overall UK-wide target of 30,000 hectares. For the previous four years, the comparison is with the combined annual targets set by the devolved administrations.
The post Chart: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the ‘size of Isle of Wight’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Chart: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the ‘size of Isle of Wight’
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.