EU should increase use of wood to tackle climate change

European Union should increase use of wood to tackle climate change

At the request of European Commission former Vice-President Margot Wallström, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has adopted an opinion in its plenary session in March 2009 that affirms “the significant role” of forests and wood-based products in mitigating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon from the atmosphere. The Committee’s opinion calls for specific measures to expand the use of sustainably produced wood, for a European committee of experts on forestry and the environment to be set up, and for every possible effort to be made to meet greenhouse gas reporting requirements.

Forests cover 31% of Europe's land area and it is estimated that they sequester about 10% of Europe’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. European forests have been functioning for several decades now as carbon sinks because their annual growth has exceeded fellings, thus helping to slow the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. On average the forest utilisation rate, or ratio of felling to growth, over the last 40 years was less than 60% within the European area. On these facts the wood resources allow a considerably expansion within the frame of biodiversity in the use of wood for construction and also for forest bioenergy purposes.

What is EESC?

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) represents the various economic and social components of organised civil society. It is an institutional consultative body of the EU established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Its consultative role enables its members, and hence the organisations they represent, to participate in the Community decision-making process. The Committee has 344 members, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers. Its opinions are forwarded to the larger institutions - the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, and are published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The opinion “The role of forests and the forest-based sector in meeting the EU’s climate commitments” was drafted by the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment of EESC. Dr. Jari Parviainen, Director of Metla’s Joensuu Research Unit was the leading expert for the preparation of that opinion. Parviainen compiled the text on the basis of the latest research results and other relevant information on the relations between climate change and forests.

Impact, adaptation and mitigation aspects carefully discussed

The goal of EU climate policy is to curtail global warming so that the average increase in global temperature does not exceed 20th century levels by more than 2°C. This threshold would mean that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere should stay below 450 p.p.m.

It was stated in the opinion that there is an important difference between commercial and natural forests in terms of carbon sequestration. From the perspective of climate protection, natural forests in their ‘end state’ are carbon storage as neutral with regard to carbon sequestration – the carbon stored in growing biomass and the carbon released through the decay of biomass are in equilibrium. Commercial forests act as a ‘carbon pump’ developing new and additional carbon sequestration capacity due to the harvesting and use of timber.

The EESC recommended that the EU should take the following measures:

- EU Member States should develop forest management contingency plans for the prevention of forest damage caused by extreme phenomena (storms, drought, forest fires, damage by insects) and for remedying the effects of such damage, in addition to increasing information about the importance of forest management.

- endeavour to use wood in different ways and for different purposes, by promoting, for example, the use of sustainably produced forest bio-energy, increasing information about using wood in construction on the basis of life cycle calculations and common construction standards and by the Member States making wood construction part of their national timber procurement policy.

- to be more active than at present in international forestry policy and to take the lead in promoting sustainably managed forests worldwide.

- to set up a European committee of leading experts made up of representatives from the forestry industry, those framing forestry policy, researchers, forest owners and other key forestry, environmental and climate protection players. Its brief will be to enhance and widen the scope of dialogue on forestry issues and improve the transfer of know-how and decision-making.

- to make every effort to meet the requirements for greenhouse gas reporting in the post-Kyoto period by the acceptance and inclusion of carbon stored in sustainably manufactured wood products as a mandatory instrument in carbon balance calculations, and by the development of a REDD instrument as an effective carbon trading tool and its acceptance in carbon balance calculations of land-use changes, particularly with a view to preventing forest loss in developing countries.

- to support research, inventories of forest reserves, the mapping of risk areas susceptible to the effects of climate change and the development of systems for monitoring the condition of forests and to ensure funding for these.