Ethiopia plants 350 million trees in one day

Some government offices have been shut down to allow people to take part in the green campaign

People in Ethiopia have planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours!

The event is part of a huge campaign to plant more than four billion trees this summer, by encouraging each person to plant 40 seedlings.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed organised the big plant in an effort to help combat climate change and deforestation.

According to the United Nations, Ethiopia's forest coverage has shrunk from 35% in the 19th Century to just 4% in the early 2000s.

People were given time off work to help plant the trees, while promotional videos were encouraging people to join in.

After 12 hours, Ethiopia's Minister of Innovation and Technology Getahun Mekuria tweeted that they had planted more than 353,000,000 tree seedlings in 12 hours.

Climate change activists in the UK are saying more trees need to be planted

The current world record for planting trees in a single day is held by India, which used 800,000 volunteers to plant more than 50 million trees in 2016.

If it is confirmed, Ethiopia will now hold that record.

Here in the UK, the Committee on Climate Change said 30,000 hectares - or 116 sq miles - of new trees will need to be planted every year until 2050 to combat our carbon emissions.

This is about the same as filling more than 46,000 standard football pitches full of trees every year.