COP26: Engineer to plant trees to offset lifetime's CO2

Dr Alison Cooke says woodland the size of two football pitches will be needed to compensate for her carbon use

An engineer has calculated her entire lifetime's carbon footprint and plans to plant a new woodland to offset it.

Cambridge-based Dr Alison Cooke pledged at the 2015 climate change summit in Paris to remove as much CO2 from the atmosphere as she produced.

She estimated her total emissions would be 695 tonnes and would need to plant about 2,000 trees in an area the size of two football pitches.

She hopes to start planting next month at a farm in Wiltshire.

Using data from the World Bank and an online carbon footprint calculator, Dr Cooke estimates 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres) of woodland will be needed to offset her lifelong carbon emissions.

She hopes to plant about 2,000 at a farm in Wiltshire over a period of three months

She said the impact of her frequent air travel for work was one of the most startling findings.

"One international flight across the Atlantic and back is almost equivalent to the whole of the usage of my car in terms of CO2 emissions," she said.

"So it made me think very carefully going forwards, not just about offsetting what I have already used but how to reduce the emissions I was going to create in the future as well".

She expects to start planting the trees in November, after the COP26 climate change summit of world leaders in Glasgow, which begins on 31 October.

Dr Cooke used an online carbon footprint calculator to work out a "good estimate" her lifetime's CO2 emissions

A blend of white elms and mixed native trees will be planted at Pertwood Manor Farm, Wiltshire, over a period of three months.

She said: "I am absolutely thrilled I am now able to say to my children and my children's children that, not only did I try and reduce my carbon emissions year in, year out, but now I have now fulfilled a pledge I made at COP21."