Maintenance of carbon balance in forests (B.2)
The concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and
halogenated hydrocarbons (F gases) – have increased over the
last hundred years. Greenhouse gases prevent heat from radiating back into space, as a consequence of which they cause
global warming.
The amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere can
be reduced by maintaining and increasing the area of forests
and the volume of growing stock, by manufacturing long-lived
wood products, and by ensuring the preservation of carbon
stocks in the soil. The carbon pool increases when the annual
increment of growing stock exceeds the drain, and more carbon
is sequestered in trees than is released in harvests. In other
words, forests function as a carbon sink.
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| Small-sized timber from first thinning left alongside the forest road for delivering
to bioenergy plants. A modern integrated bioenergy plant for the generation of
heat (48 MW), industrial steam (10 MW) and electricity (21 MW) based on forest
logging residues, the tree branches, crowns, stumps and small-sized trees
(Kerava Energy Ltd., established 2009 ). |
However, the maintenance and increase of the capacity of the
soil and trees to sequester carbon is only one factor in climate
change. The main objectives in mitigating climate change are the
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the substitution of
non-renewable raw materials and energy sources with renewable
biomass, such as wood based products and energy.
Policy instruments for the prevention of climate change
The Kyoto Protocol (1997), which builds upon the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commits industrial
economies and economies in transition to reduce their
collective emissions in 2008–2012 to 1990 levels. The greenhouse
gas emission target specified for Finland under the EUinternal
burden-sharing agreement is 71.0 million tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent per year, a level that must be achieved
by emission cuts between 2008 and 2012. Individual countries
may implement emission reductions through their own actions,
through cooperation with other governments, or through arrangements
specifically designed for limiting emissions in industrialised
countries.
In 2008, the EU set itself the goal of increasing the percentage of
renewable energy to 20% of end use of energy by 2020. For Finland,
this translates into a requirement for substantial increases
in the use of forest bioenergy (heating, electricity and biofuels),
as Finland has committed to increase the percentage of renewable
energy to 38% from the baseline level of 28.5% (2005).
Accordingly, the National Climate and Energy Strategy
adopted by the Government in 2008 aims to reduce energy
consumption and substantially increase the use of renewable
energy sources4 by 2020. These new goals were taken into account
in revising the National Forest Programme 2015 (NFP).
The aim now is to increase the use of forest chips per annum
from about 7 million cubic metres at present (2010) to 13.5 million
cubic metres in 2020.
To this end, the Government adopted a renewable energy
obligation package in 2010. This specifies goals for various
renewable energy sources and outlines instruments of financial
control. Half of the increase in renewable energy that Finland
needs to achieve by 2020 can be attained by increasing the use
of forest chips. Three forms of support are proposed to increase
4 Renewable energy sources are solar, wind and bioenergy, geothermal energy
and energy from the motion of waves and tides. Bioenergy is energy from
the combustion of biological fuels. Biofuels are made from biomass growing
in forests, peatlands and fields, and from suitable organic waste produced by
communities, agriculture and industry. Bioenergy accounts for 90% of all renewable
energy sources.
The use of forest chips and other wood-based fuels for energy:
energy support for low-grade timber for chipping; variable electricity
production support; and feed-in tariffs for new, small combined
heat and power (CHP) plants producing bioenergy. The
proposed measures would translate into a reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions of about 7 million tonnes per year.
The use of wood in buildings and furniture reduces fossil
fuel emissions, as in these cases wood replaces other materials
such as concrete that require more energy to produce and
cause more emissions. Wood is a low-energy, renewable construction
material throughout its life cycle while also providing
long-term carbon sequestration. Of all common building materials,
it requires the least energy to produce. One cubic metre of
wood, when used to replace other building materials, reduces
carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by an average
of 1.1 tonnes.
The international proliferation of wood building and the use of
wood in construction is restricted by a lack of commonly accepted
standards, instructions and certification criteria. An important
precedent was set by France, the first EU Member States
to pass a decree (2010) requiring the use of a certain percentage
of wood in new construction. Building with wood has been
promoted in Finland since the 1990s through a number of policy
measures and action plans, and Government Programmes
since the 1990s have systematically included goals on promoting
building with wood.
The anticipated impact of climate change on forests is being researched
in several studies, and contingency plans are in preparation
to facilitate and evaluate forest adaptation. Contingency
plans exist for instance to cope with storm damage. The
National Strategy on Invasive Alien Species completed in
2010 sets out measures to control the spreading of harmful alien
species to Finland.
Finland’s National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate
Change was completed in 2005. The Strategy describes the
impacts of climate change on forestry, among other things, and
outlines measures needed in forest management. On the basis
of the Strategy, a research programme on adaptation to climate
change was undertaken between 2006 and 2010. The Strategy
was revised in 2011.
Emissions trading
The EU emissions trading system, pursuant to the Emission
Trading Directive (2003/87/EC), was launched at the beginning
of 2005. The principle behind emissions trading is to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in locations where it is the most costeffective
to do so. The emissions trading system covers the carbon
dioxide emissions of major industrial and energy production
facilities. In Finland, the system also includes district heating
plants with an output of 20 MW or less.
Emission rights are allocated to operators either free of charge
or by auction. One EU Allowance Unit in emission rights is equal
to one tonne of carbon dioxide. Emission rights may be freely
bought and sold anywhere in the EU. There are several stock
exchanges in Europe that trade in emission rights, but there is
also trade outside these stock exchanges.
The emissions trading system covers more than 40% of the
greenhouse gas emissions of the entire EU, and about half of
those of Finland. Finland’s national Emissions Trading Authority
is the Energy Marketing Authority. Emission rights have been allocated
to 566 facilities for the period 2008 to 2012, amounting
to 187.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide in total.
Reporting on greenhouse gas emissions
The parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) are required to submit to the UNFCCC
Secretariat a national greenhouse gas inventory each year,
assessing and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions to and
removals from the atmosphere due to human action. Forests
come under the category of activities known as LULUCF, or ‘land
use, land use change and forestry’. This category constitutes a
greenhouse gas sink in Finland: the volume of greenhouse gases
sequestered is larger than that released. Greenhouse gases
sequestered by LULUCF activities mainly consist of carbon dioxide
removed by forests from the atmosphere.
The Finnish national inventory is prepared by Statistics Finland,
which also participates in the preparation of the greenhouse
gas inventory for the European Union. In addition to Statistics
Finland, inventory calculations are made by the Finnish Forest
Research Institute, the Finnish Environment Institute, VTT Technical
Research Centre of Finland and MTT Agrifood Research
Finland. The Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) calculates
the carbon balance of wood biomass, i.e. the change in carbon
dioxide sequestered in trees. Since 2005, changes in the volume
of dead organic matter (deadwood, litter and soil) have
also been reported, as well as the carbon sequesrated by wood
products. In addition to data on emissions by source and removals
by sinks, the reports include accounts of the methods used
in calculations and any changes made to them.
Informational means
Over the past five years, there has been an unusual upsurge in
R&D in the field of forest bioenergy procurement, harvesting,
use, and related new products and solutions. Forest bioenergy
research is conducted at all major forestry research institutions
and universities providing forestry education. In the region of
North Karelia, considerable investments have been made in thepromotion of, advisory services for and research in the use of
forest bioenergy; this is a strategic focus area at the University
of Eastern Finland, and a network entitled WENET has been set
up to connect partners, to transfer information and to provide a
vehicle for advisory services in forest energy solutions.
Examples of Tekes-funded programmes currently in progress
include BioRefine – New Biomass Products; Liito – Innovative
Business Competence and Management; Groove – Growth from
Renewables; ClimBus – Business Opportunities in Mitigating Climate
Change; and Tuli – Creating Business from Research. Earlier
programmes included Densy – Distributed Energy Systems;
Harju – processing of thinning wood; Nemo – New energy and
technologies; and the Wood Energy Technology Programme.
The Bio Research Programme of the Finnish Forest Research Institute
(Metla) ended in 2011 and explored the potential of increasing energy use
of biomass and its impact on the economy and operating potential
of forest owners, the forest and energy industries and
harvesting machine entrepreneurs. The programme also included
studying the properties of wood biomass as a raw material
for biorefineries, taking the production requirements of energy
and other products into account.
The Finnish Forest Research
Institute (Metla) is also involved in several international R&D
projects as either coordinator or participant. These projects include
for instance ‘EUwood – Real potential for changes in
growth and use of EU forests’ and the Nordic FOREST POWER
biomass project.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is coordinating a
project entitled ‘Sustainability of biomass utilisation in a changing
operational environment (SUBICHOE)’. The project includes
not only the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and VTT
but also MTT Agrifood Research Finland, the Finnish Environment
Institute and the State Institute for Economic Research.
The project is funded by Tekes, the Ministry of Employment and
the Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the
participating research institutions.
The three research areas of Forestcluster Ltd (intelligent production
technologies that conserve resources; biorefineries that use
wood in diverse ways; and future customer solutions) fall wholly
or partly within the domain of forest bioenergy research.
On the research agenda of the Cluster for Energy and Environment,
Cleen Ltd, ‘Distributed energy systems’ has a connection
to forest bioenergy and related technological development.
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