A new study suggests converting croplands, or marginal lands, to forests will have a negligible impact on global warming, despite the UN’s Kyoto Protocol encouraging afforestation.
This is partly due to the fact that forests are less reflective than croplands and the absorption of incoming solar radiation can result in net warming.
Modelling five scenarios in which afforestation was conducted over 50 years to 2060, researchers found that even if all cropland in the world was afforested it would only reduce warming by 0.45 degrees by 2100.
Read more at Nature Geoscience