Boris Johnson & Conservatives Miss Their Tree-Planting Target By A Mile, But It's The EU's Fault
Michael Gove has been criticised for talking “nonsense” after blaming the EU for the British government missing its target on planting trees. The former environment secretary’s comments came during an interview on Radio 4’s Today programme in which he insisted the Conservatives were dedicated to meeting the challenge of the climate emergency.
Pushed on the fact that the government was set to fail to deliver on the 2015 Tory manifesto promise to plant another 11 million trees by 2020, Mr Gove said: “And that’s why we need to leave the European Union.” He added: “Inside the European Union we’re trapped in the Common Agricultural Policy. It’s one of the big benefits of leaving the European Union, and it will allow us to meet these tree-planting targets which will ensure that we deal with the climate crisis that we face.”
Environmental groups warn expanding forest cover is vital if Britain is to meet climate targets and protect wildlife and have urged the government to implement legally binding targets in the new Environment Bill. The government has planted just a third of the trees it promised in 2015 and campaigners say ministers failed to implement policy to increase that rate.
The Conservatives claim farmers would be given more support for tree-planting if the UK was no longer beholden to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP.) But Guy Shrubsole, a trees campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Blaming the EU for successive UK government’s failure to plant more trees is nonsense – given that the UK has 13 per cent woodland cover, when the EU average is 37 per cent.” Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace UK, added: “Michael Gove is barking up the wrong tree and knows it. “EU farming policies can be blamed for many things but not for the government’s failure to plant more trees. The UK has less forest cover than most countries under the CAP.
EDIT
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/brexit-tree-planting-michael-gove-eu-conservatives-a9205371.html