Luke Pollard – 2020 Comments on Government’s Tree Planning Consultation

Below is the text of the comments made by Luke Pollard, the Shadow Environment Secretary, on 19 June 2020.

The Government missed its tree planting target by 71% last year alone so it needs to do much more. Tree planting, habitat protection and promoting biodiversity must be cornerstones of building back better as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis.

This is yet another consultation. But the Government needs to show urgency and ambition to tackle the climate crisis, and ministers need to be honest about how far off target they currently are.