CARBON REDUCTION
Forestry and packaging
GROWIN
While geo-engineering has merit, natural carbon sinks, such as the ever-growing Scandinavian forests used to
make European beverage cartons, already offer a practical and sustainable solution to removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Richard Hands explains how managed forestry – and demand for wood – can make a difference
C
limate scientists calculate that the world has only a few decades to reduce
emissions before there is so much CO2 in the atmosphere that a dangerous rise in global temperature is inevitable.
Reducing CO2 emissions, therefore, is top of the international agenda and with the UN Copenhagen summit still front of mind, the pressure is mounting. Reducing the amount of
CO2 each nation emits into the atmosphere is no mean feat. Not only will it take time, but also a huge shift in social, cultural and political attitudes, as well as behaviours. So, what of the short term? The UK’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers says that in conjunction with efforts to reduce carbon emissions we should take measures to
remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere, providing extra time to decarbonise the global economy. It points to geo-engineering tech- nologies, such as artificial trees, which remove CO2 for storage underground.
While geo-engineering has merit, natural carbon sinks, such as the ever-growing Scandinavian forests used to make European beverage cartons, already offer a practical and sustainable solution. In fact, recent research from the University of Helsinki has found a strong link between the increasing demand for European forest timber and increased carbon capture (or sequestration) – helping to combat climate change.
As most school children know, trees, with their ability to convert CO2 into oxygen
through photosynthesis, are good for the environment. However, according to A. Rautianinen et al , the need for ever-growing areas of European forests to be conserved for bio-diversity reasons, together with the demand for end timber products, has led to such effective forest management that today’s European forests are actually increasing in value as carbon sinks. Remarkably, while the overall area of forest in Finland has remained large- ly unchanged between 1912 and 2005, the forests have increased in value in the fight against climate change due to increases in the average tree size and stocking density.
This unin- tended co-ben- efit of managed forestry, moti- vated by the commercial need to increase timber yields, has led to an increased bio- mass stock in Finnish forests sequestering 18 tonnes
of CO2 a year per square kilometre, versus CO2 emissions in the
28 May 2010 ❘ Sustainab le Business
same region of 12 tonnes per square kilometre. On a European scale, it is estimated that from 1990 to 2005 expanding forest biomass in the
EU27 sequestered 360–495M tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year – correspon- ding to some 8-10% of the EUs fossil fuel CO2 emissions.
So, although there has been a greater demand for wood-based products in recent years, thanks to improved forest management practices – including, soil preparation, selecting the right regeneration method, cleaning of the young stands and timely thinnings – these forests produce a greater yield of wood per hectare and thus increasingly absorb
CO2 from the atmosphere. This carbon is then retained within the tree and its future wood pulp products, such as the beverage car- ton, for the whole life of the product. Furthermore, because in managed forests trees are replaced or replen- ished at a rate equivalent or greater than their use, wood fibre is a renewable resource that can be used by industry with low environmental impact.
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