SIR –

We’ve once again seen floods cause devastation – with homes, businesses and lives in various parts of the West Midlands ruined.

If the climate crisis is not properly dealt with, and fast, this is only going to get more regular and more extreme.

In order to deal with the climate crisis and reduce the harm from flooding, we need to double UK tree cover.

As well as absorbing carbon emissions, trees offer natural defences against extreme weather such as flooding.

Pilot schemes using natural solutions like trees as flood defences have shown that peak water levels can be reduced by as much as 25 per cent.

While politicians have dawdled around climate action, many folks in local communities up and down the region are planting trees to ward off floods, absorb carbon and help clean up the local air.

Doubling tree cover can’t only fall to individuals and community groups. We’ve seen the Green Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats make tree planting commitments of various ambition, but we need more from politicians to respond to the climate crisis.

National Tree Week kicks off on Saturday – the perfect time for all political parties to up their game and commit to doubling tree cover in the UK. Our politicians declared a climate emergency. Now it’s time for action.

CHRIS CREAN Friends of the Earth, West Midlands