Time to branch out? Trees put lawns in the shade when it comes to tackling climate crisis

Traditional lawn has been under fire for years because of its lack of biodiversity and voracious appetite for fertiliser, herbicides and mowing

Dig up your “imperial” lawn and replant it with trees to combat the climate crisis, researchers have urged, after the latest study to lay bare the emissions cost of maintaining that pleasant, green patch.

If a third of the world’s city lawns were planted with trees, more than a gigatonne of carbon could be removed from the atmosphere over two decades, researchers from Auckland University of Technology found. The problem is not the grass itself, but the mowing, fertilisation and irrigation required.