Planting trees in the tropics, rather than in higher latitudes, could be more rewarding in terms of cooling the planet, according to a new study on regional effects of afforestation.

Researchers, including those from the University of California Riverside, US, said that planting trees provides an overall positive effect for the world`s climate by pulling out warming carbon from the atmosphere.

However, local effects on temperature not related to carbon varied significantly by region. For instance, trees at higher latitudes could have a slight heating effect, while the opposite is true in the tropics, they said.