By Steffan Messenger, BBC Wales Environment Correspondent, today:

Wales is falling behind on actions needed to fight climate change, according to a major report.

It accused the Welsh government of making “insufficient” effort from installing electric vehicle charge points to planting trees.

Tree planting and peatland restoration rates were also found to be “far too low”.

The rate of new woodland creation was currently less than a third of the Welsh government’s target of 2,000 hectares a year, in itself a “significantly less ambitious” goal than the CCC wanted to see.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65818671

‘Meanwhile in Scotland’ (one of my phrases which most annoyed the lads at r/Scotland):

Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive of Edinburgh-based forestry and wood trade body Confor, said: “Scotland is leading the way in the UK in planting more trees and using more wood because it understands what modern, mixed-species and multi-purpose forests deliver – stronger rural economies, faster progress towards net-zero targets, flood mitigation, biodiversity benefits, better recreational opportunities for people, and much more.  

In 2021-22, Scotland planted 10,480 hectares (ha) of new woodland – the vast majority of the UK total of 13,860 ha. England planted 2260ha, Wales 580 and Northern Ireland 540. 

Mr Goodall said Scotland was beginning to reap the economic and environmental benefits of tree planting – while the UK Government policy was “a total economic and environmental failure”. 

Boris Johnson pledged to plant 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of new woodland every year by 2025 during the December 2019 election campaign – but official statistics show the total did not even reach 14,000 hectares in the year to March 31st, 2022 across the UK. 

https://www.confor.org.uk/news/latest-news/scotland-leads-way-on-uk-tree-planting-but-misses-target/