'How long do the trees stand? And what happens after? Do they get burned? Are they cut down for use in bioenergy?' 'Trees remove CO2, but how permanent is it?' he said. 'More permanent' carbon storage options are requiredĬhristoph Beuttler, head of climate policy at Swiss direct air capture company Climeworks, said 'more permanent options' are needed for long-term carbon storage. We have to make sure the intentions are aligned with various realities.' So you're betting on a future you hope you can control. 'Then you have to legally put that in position, and politically put that in position, to make sure that will happen. 'So if you want to say I'm getting a forest here to replace this thing I did and it has all this characterization of capturing carbon over the next X number of years,' he said. 'What happens next?' he said in an interview with Dezeen, referring to the question of what happens once the trees have been planted. 'Soil carbon is by far the most affordable and scalable method of carbon removal that we know today,' he said.Īfforestation is 'a tricky business,' according to sustainable design expert William McDonough. It also acts as a highly effective fertiliser, reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers, the production of which generates large amounts of emissions.

Soil sequestration, whereby atmospheric carbon is drawn into the earth via regenerative agriculture techniques, is a far more effective solution, he argued, since carbon remains in the soil for hundreds of years. How many companies last 100 years these days? How on earth is anyone going to afford to maintain that forest, hiring the team of people you need to do that? It doesn't make any sense.' Soil sequestration sees carbon removed from the atmosphere to enrich soil 'So you plant your saplings and then you have to maintain the forest for 100 years. 'And then you have to maintain that forest and make sure it isn't burned or cut down.'Forests need to have a permanence of 100 years to be effective carbon stores', he said. 'You plant the forest but you don't start seeing carbon retention and sequestration happening for at least 10 years after they're planted, so there's a long lag time in doing that,' explained Gambill, whose company allows people who capture atmospheric carbon to sell it to people who want to offset their emissions.

Aerial layout drawing trees