How much CO2 does a tree absorb?
A freshly planted seedling captures roughly 5 to 6 kg of CO2 a year. By year five it is 10 to 12 kg, by year ten 15 to 18 kg, and a mature tree settles around 22 to 25 kg a year. Carbon capture rises with age, which changes how tree planting should be measured and rewarded.
The curve, year by year
Year 1 seedling: 5 to 6 kg per year · Year 5 young tree: 10 to 12 kg · Year 10 fast growth: 15 to 18 kg · Year 15 to 20 full power: 22 to 25 kg per year.
These are working averages. Species, climate, soil and space all move the number, and any single figure quoted without that caveat should be treated with suspicion. The shape of the curve, however, is consistent: young trees capture little, mature trees capture several times more.
What that means in daily life
- A year of driving a petrol or diesel car: roughly 90 to 100 adult trees working for you.
- One 50 litre tank of fuel: more than five years of work by a single mature tree.
- A transatlantic return flight: around 45 trees.
- A year of smartphone use, charging and streaming: two to three trees.
- Simply breathing for a year, about 365 kg: roughly 16 trees.
- A whole average lifestyle, 5 to 8 tonnes: a private forest of 250 to 350 trees per person.
The home page has a calculator that turns your own driving, flights and household into a tree count.
Why this shapes the reward model
If capture rises with age, a payment that happens once at planting is measuring the wrong thing. It pays for an event, when the value is in the decades that follow.
PLANTAURUM therefore pays again each year the tree is verified alive, with the yearly amount rising as the tree matures: 1x in year one, climbing to roughly double by year five. The reward curve deliberately mirrors the carbon curve, so the incentive and the environmental benefit move together. The mechanics are on how it works.
The honest caveats
- Averages hide enormous variation between species and climates.
- A tree that dies young removes almost nothing, which is why survival, not planting, is the real metric.
- Planting is not a licence to emit. It is slower and less certain than not emitting in the first place.
- Mature forests do the heavy lifting today; new trees are an investment that pays off over decades.