Instead of soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, growing trees will release extra CO
But this result presumably came from areas where trees were planted on former forest or peat soils, which are very high in organic carbon. If trees are planted in soil that has been used for arable agriculture for a long time and therefore has a low carbon content, the result is quite different.
Using surplus agricultural land for trees is a real option in the European Union, under current set-aside schemes (where land is taken out of food production, either temporarily or permanently). And the likely changes to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy also propose taking more land permanently out of agricultural use. Here at ...
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