Regional priorities in implementing forestation and wind energy as climate solutions in facing their trade-offs

Both forestation and wind-energy upscaling are crucial climate solutions, but they may have conflicts as forestation can increase surface roughness and reduce wind speed. Here, based on coupled land-atmosphere simulations with contrasting forest areas, we report a notable trade-off between wind energy and carbon sequestration across a range of potential forestation areas. A maximum global forestation area of 1508 Mha is estimated to enable a biomass carbon sequestration of 90.7 GtC but also contribute to a 19.5% reduction in global onshore wind energy technical potential. The strength of such carbon-energy trade-offs, however, differs among different regions. Tropics could provide large forestation-induced carbon sequestration but have a small loss in wind energy potential. Large-scale forestation in Europe and US mainland may diminish not only wind energy potential but also energy generation of their current wind installations. Our results highlight the importance of maximizing the collective benefits of potentially competing climate solutions.