On Feb. 12, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) introduced the Trillion Trees Act, legislation that would plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 and incentivize the use of wood products as carbon sequestration devices.
This legislation is based on a July 2019 Swiss report featured by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science that concluded planting 1 trillion trees across the world could sequester 205 gigatonnes of carbon That’s roughly the equivalent of two-thirds of all man made carbon since the Industrial Revolution.( Read more: “Tree Planting Positioned as a Climate Solution, Healthy Markets for Forest Products Must Be a Priority”)
The bill has three parts:
- Plant more trees in urban areas and on marginal agriculture land domestically while offering technical support and assistance for other countries to maximize forest growth internationally and reverse deforestation.
- Grow more wood in existing forests and make them more resilient to insects, diseases and catastrophic wildfires.
- Store more carbon by incentivizing innovative building practices with a sustainable building tax credit.
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