Rod Carr

The Government would be imposing a big obligation on future generations if it relied heavily on pine forests to meet the country’s 2050 “net zero” carbon goal, MPs have been told. Climate Change Commission chairperson Rod Carr told Parliament’s Environment select committee “we think trees are great”. But he said the commission was concerned about what might happen after 2050 if the country had achieved “net zero” by planting a large number of pine trees that might be unsustainable. “If they are a mono-age, mono-culture of planting, particularly on erosion-prone land, maintaining that forest cover in the face of disease, age, storm, fire is going to be an increasing obligation on future generations.” Up to 2 million hectares of farmland could be converted to pine forests under existing incentives, which placed no cap on the use of forestry to achieve net emissions targets, he said.