Timber cities ‘could cut 100bn tons of CO2 emissions by 2100’

Environmentalists say replacing natural forests with wood plantations to realise shift in construction practices is bonkers'

Building new urban homes from wood instead of concrete and steel could save about 10% of the carbon budget needed to limit global heating to 2C this century, according to a new study.

The overhaul of construction practices needed for such a shift would require up to 149m hectares of new timber plantations - and an increase in harvests from unprotected natural forests - but it need not encroach on farmland, according to the paper by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).