The CO2 Storage Capacity of a Tree

How much CO₂ can a tree actually store? Our project partners often ask this question after we have calculated the specific Product Carbon Footprint for their product.

In general, it can be confirmed that trees can act as (temporary) stores of CO₂, as they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. How much CO₂ this is in individual cases, however, is not easy to determine. A tree’s storage capacity depends on many factors, such as tree species, location, age, wood density or growth rate.

To give a first impression of storage capacity, however, the Bavarian State Institute of Forestry has produced a fact sheet that provides more detailed information on storage capacity based on tree height and diameter at breast height.
It shows, for example, that a 30-metre-tall beech with a diameter of 35 centimetres at breast height can store between 1,500 kg and 2,500 kg of CO₂ over its lifetime.
Prof. Daniel Klein of the Forest Centre at the University of Münster explains that the beech would have to grow for about 80 years to achieve this storage capacity. This means that, assuming constant CO₂ uptake across all growth phases and an average storage capacity of 2,000 kg, a beech can absorb around 25 kg of CO₂ per year.

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