Forests and Carbon

Reducing emissions from industrial sources, and preventing emissions from the destruction of native vegetation and forests are both essential to addressing climate change. Global emissions have continued to accelerate and ‘overshoot’ the acceptable limits of temperature increases, and Australia’s climate targets show a significant minority of industrial and household emissions that cannot feasibly be eliminated at source.  This means large scale, cost effective ways to rapidly draw carbon out of the atmosphere is an urgent, non-negotiable part of any credible climate policy. And there is one proven, scalable and cost-efficient technology that can achieve this.

Protecting existing forests from destruction, and planting new forests to store carbon, will deliver a third of Australia’s emissions reductions in the next decade, and half by 2050. This is an unprecedented task, but the benefits for the climate, for nature, and for First Nations and landholders are game changing.

We know governments cannot address the nature crisis alone. There will never be enough public funding derived from tax payers to deliver the scale of repair needed. But by leveraging the payments required from polluters to reduce carbon emissions, and ensuring those funds are directed to high integrity forest protection and restoration projects that deliver benefits for nature and landholders, Australia can deliver the large scale forest and woodland restoration to turn around 250 years of environmental damage.