How do trees store carbon, and why is there no fixed number per tree?
Trees pull CO2 from the air and lock carbon into wood, roots and soil. Here is how that works, how India measures forest carbon, why per-tree figures vary so widely, and why permanence matters.
Is the carbon in trees stored permanently?
No. The IPCC (AR6 Working Group III, Summary for Policymakers, C.11.3, 2022) states that CO2 removed and stored by vegetation and soils can be reversed by human or natural disturbances, and is also exposed to climate change impacts. Fire, pests, drought, storms, illegal felling and land-use change can all release stored carbon.
This is called the permanence problem. Carbon credit standards try to manage it. For example, Verra's Verified Carbon Standard holds back a share of forestry credits in a buffer pool to cover future losses.
For individuals
Planting and caring for native trees is valuable for shade, soil, water, wildlife and local cooling. It is not a reliable way to cancel a specific amount of your own emissions, especially in the first years.
For businesses
A CSR tree-planting programme is not the same as offsetting your emissions. If you report trees, describe what you did (trees planted, species, site, survival checks) rather than converting it into tonnes of CO2 offset, unless you use a recognised standard with measurement, verification and a plan for permanence.
Sources: 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4 (AFOLU), Chapter 4 Forest Land; 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4, Chapter 2 Generic methodologies (carbon pools, gain-loss and stock-difference methods); 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4, Chapter 4 Forest Land; PIB, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav releases India State of Forest Report 2023 (December 2024); PIB backgrounder, India's Green Recovery: Forest and Tree Cover Grows (27 December 2024); Forest Survey of India, India State of Forest Report 2023, Volume I; PIB, Carbon stock in India increases by 79.4 million tonnes (ISFR 2021); IPCC AR6 Working Group III, Summary for Policymakers (2022); IPCC AR6 Working Group III, Chapter 12 Cross-sectoral perspectives (2022); India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (2015), UNFCCC NDC Registry; GHG Protocol, Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition); Verra, VCS AFOLU Non-Permanence Risk Tool; UNFCCC: India's Updated First Nationally Determined Contribution under Paris Agreement (2021-2030), August 2022; UNFCCC: India's Nationally Determined Contribution (2031-2035), April 2026
This article was prepared with AI assistance and checked by the GreenEye team against the sources shown in each section.
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