Where Is the Best Place to Plant Trees to Cool the Planet?

This keeps coming up. It is the hottest year on record where you live, the summer felt brutal, and the instinct is simple: it is hot here, so we should plant trees here to cool it down here. It is a good instinct. It is also only half right, and the half that is missing changes where your trees do the most good.

Here is the shift. Cooling your street is a local job. Cooling the whole planet is a global one, and those two things do not happen in the same places. New research is clear that where you plant matters more than how many you plant, and the spots that cool the planet most are not the ones sweating through a heatwave in California. If you want your trees to pull the most weight for the climate, you can start a tree planting programme with ForestNation, and this article explains exactly why location is the lever.

Does it matter where you plant a tree?

Yes, and more than most people think. A 2026 study in Communications Earth and Environment compared reforestation scenarios in a full Earth system model and found that where trees go matters more than the total number planted. Two of the scenarios differed by 450 million hectares of new forest, an enormous gap, yet produced almost the same global cooling. The lead author, Nora Fahrenbach, put it plainly: where we plant is more important than how much we plant.

That single finding rewires the whole question. More trees is not automatically more cooling. The right trees in the right place is what moves the needle.

Do trees cool the planet locally or globally?

Both, but through two different mechanisms that pull in different directions depending on latitude. The first is carbon. A growing tree pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and stores it, and because carbon dioxide mixes evenly through the whole atmosphere, that benefit is global. It does not matter whether the tree grows in Kilimanjaro or Kansas, the carbon it stores helps the entire planet.

The second mechanism is physical, and it is local. Trees release water vapour through their leaves, a process called evapotranspiration, which cools the air around them like sweat cools skin. They also cast shade and change how much sunlight the ground reflects. These effects are felt where the tree stands, and their size depends entirely on the location.

Where do trees cool the planet the most?

The tropics, by a clear margin. In the tropics trees grow all year, store carbon fast, and pump huge volumes of water vapour into the air, so they cool both locally and globally at once. A 2025 study in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science found that tropical land showed real cooling from added forest, driven by that evapotranspiration, while the same trees planted at high northern latitudes produced no meaningful cooling. The 2026 Earth system study reached the same conclusion, naming the Amazon and tropical Africa as the places with the greatest potential to cool both the local and global climate.

This is why a tree planted near the equator does more climate work than the same tree planted in a cool northern country. It is not about effort or good intentions, it is about how trees and sunlight and water behave at different latitudes.

Why can planting trees up north backfire?

Because of an effect called albedo, which is how much sunlight a surface reflects. Snow is bright and reflects most of the sunlight that hits it, which keeps the ground cool. Plant a dark forest across that snow and the treetops absorb the sunlight the snow used to bounce away. In the far north that darkening can warm the region enough to cancel out the carbon benefit. The 2026 study found that large-scale reforestation across Siberia, Canada and Alaska usually does not cool the climate for exactly this reason. The 2025 study likewise found a slight warming effect at high latitudes, and warned that planting there can also raise wildfire risk.

So the honest picture is not plant trees everywhere. It is plant the right trees in the places where they actually cool the planet.

If it is hot in my city, should I plant trees there?

Yes, for local reasons, and those reasons are real. Street trees and city parks cut local heat, throw shade, clean the air, and make places more liveable through a fierce summer. If your town is baking, more trees will help your town. That is worth doing on its own merits.

What the science says is that you do not need to plant locally to get the global cooling benefit, and in some hot, dry, fire-prone places large-scale planting is a poor fit anyway, because young trees compete for scarce water and can add fuel to wildfire. Cooling your city and cooling the planet are two goals. Plant in your city for the first. For the second, the tropics win.

Where does ForestNation plant, and why?

ForestNation plants in Tanzania, in tropical East Africa, which is exactly the kind of location this research points to as highest impact. Our trees are a contribution to verified reforestation, field measured by our own Working Trees study across five sites, at about 0.025 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tree per year with a thirty percent uncertainty discount already applied. We do not sell offsets and we do not claim to cancel anyone’s footprint. We plant real, trackable trees in the part of the world where a tree does the most for the climate, and where the planting also supports local livelihoods. You can read our impact methodology to see exactly how those figures are measured.

It also answers the worry underneath the original question. A company in California that plants with us is not ignoring its own heatwave. It is putting its trees where they cool the whole planet most, which is the shared sky California lives under too.

Imagine every business that felt this summer’s heat choosing to plant where a tree does the most good, tropical forests growing back, carbon coming down, and local communities earning from the trees they tend. That is what happens when where you plant is chosen on evidence rather than instinct.

If you want your planting to count for the climate, not for the gesture alone, build your corporate forest with ForestNation. And if you are weighing whether one company’s trees matter at all, our piece on why a single tree still matters is worth a read.

We are part of nature, not separate from it. Planting a tree where it helps most is one small, sane way of acting like it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it matter where you plant trees for climate change?

Yes. A 2026 Earth system study found that where trees are planted matters more than how many, with two scenarios 450 million hectares apart producing almost the same global cooling. The tropics cool the planet most.

Do you have to plant trees locally to cool your area?

Local trees cool your local area through shade and moisture, so they help your town. But cooling the whole planet is a global effect from stored carbon, so you do not need to plant locally to gain it. The tropics deliver the most global cooling per tree.

Why is planting trees in the tropics better for the climate?

Tropical trees grow year round, store carbon quickly, and release large amounts of water vapour that cools the air, so they cool both locally and globally. High-latitude planting can even warm the region because dark canopy over snow absorbs more sunlight.

Where does ForestNation plant trees?

ForestNation plants in Tanzania, in tropical East Africa, which research identifies as a high-impact location for climate cooling. The trees are a contribution to verified reforestation, field measured, and support local livelihoods.