Tackle climate change: Use wood
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Tackle Climate Change: Use Wood

2 3 1 Climate Change CO2 emissions are the main cause 6 Cutting CO2 emissions 10 Wood and CO2 reduction 12 2 Europe’s forests: a renewable resource Europe’s forests are growing 20 Europe’s forests are sustainable 24 Certification 28 3 How wood products help slow Global Warming Assessing the CO2 impact of different materials 32 How much CO2 can be saved by using wood? 38 The main opportunities for substituting wood products 40 European legislation 44 4 The eco-cycle of wood and wood-based products The carbon cycle of wood-based products 48 Wood re-use 50 Wood recycling 52 Wood and energy...

Climate Change The effects are already evident CO2 emissions are the main cause Wood can reduce CO2 sources Wood can increase CO2 sinks

7 The greenhouse effect The term ‘greenhouse effect’ refers to the way infrared radiation from the Earth is trapped, heating up the atmosphere. Solar radiation reaches the Earth through the atmosphere and warms its surface. The stored energy is then sent back to space as infrared radiation. However, as it is less powerful than the incoming radiation, it is increasingly unable to cross the barrier of specific atmospheric gases known as greenhouse gases. The most important greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2), but others include steam (H2O), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),...

The first effects There is no longer any doubt that the climate is changing, or that this change is amplified by human activity. According to the latest report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the 20th century was the warmest since records began, the ‘90s the warmest decade, 1998 the warmest year. The first effects have already been clearly documented and point the way to much more widespread and destructive changes in the future: • the North Pole ice cap is melting: between 1950 and 2000 its surface has diminished by 20%3 • global sea levels have already risen by...

11 At least 60% of climate change can be attributed to CO2 emissions resulting from human activities - mostly the burning of fossil fuels, which contributes 6 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually2. Just to contain CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to their current levels would require a reduction in global emissions of more than 40%. As 85% of the energy necessary to run our societies comes from fossil fuels, a reduction in emissions of this order would involve politically unacceptable cuts in our energy consumption. In short, the efforts necessary to stabilize the concentrations...

Thermal efficiency Using wood also helps to save energy over the life of a building, as its cellular structure provides outstanding thermal insulation: 15 times better than concrete, 400 times better than steel and 1 770 times better than aluminium. A 2,5cm timber board has better thermal resistance than an 11,4cm brick wall6. As a result, wood is becoming an ever more competitive solution to the increasing thermal demands of European building regulations. Substitution for fossil fuel energy When wood cannot be re-used or recycled, it can still produce energy through combustion. The energy...

With an estimated European wood product stock of some 60 million t C, the carbon storage effect of wood products has a significant role to play in reducing greenhouse gases5. The 0,9 t CO2 stored in a cubic metre of wood continues to be kept out of the atmosphere throughout the initial life of a wood product and then beyond, through re-use and recycling (for instance as wood panels or reconstituted wood), to be finally returned to the atmosphere through incineration for energy, or decomposition. According to recent estimates, the average life of wood products varies between 2 months for...

The role of wood products in supporting forests Contrary to the commonly held belief that there is a direct causal link between using wood and the destruction of forests, increasing the use of wood makes a positive contribution to maintaining and increasing forests. Clearly there is a distinction to be made between tropical or sub-tropical forests and temperate forests. In the former, forest cover is indeed being reduced, for a number of reasons linked to population growth, poverty and institutional deficiencies. However, increasing wood use is not a contributory factor. On the contrary, it...

18 Europe’s forests: a renewable resource Forests are growing EU forest cover approaching 50% Potential to increase annual harvest Sustainably managed Leading the way in certification One of Europe’s success stories

The global context Globally, forests are an immense resource, accounting for 29,6% of the Earth’s total land base8. Although European forests, excluding Russia, account for just 5% of that area, they are the most intensively managed in the world, providing 12% of current global round wood fellings and 23% of industrial round wood10. The European forest sector’s output is about 25% of current world industrial production of forest products, accounting for almost 30% of wood-based panels, paper and paperboard11. Despite the increasing demand for forest resources, the EU has become a net...

24 25 Managed forests Left entirely to nature, forests will achieve a climax stage, where the site is supporting the maximum amount of biomass soil fertility, rainfall and temperature conditions will allow. At this point the forest only grows as trees fall from age, wind, landslip, disease or fire. Although natural regeneration will occur, the dead and dying trees will decay or burn, emitting CO2 from the stored carbon. Growth is matched by decay and, with no forest management, there is no net increase in carbon storage. Harvesting trees as they mature allows much of their carbon to be...

Indigenous tree species Many European forests have seen the introduction of nonindigenous species. For example, in the Netherlands, the fast growing species Larch, Douglas fir and American oak produce large volumes of quality timber. With the increasing implementation of integrated forest management designed to respect natural ecosystems, these sometimes invasive species are being phased out in favour of indigenous species, at the expense of some reduction in the volume of quality logs. European guidelines After the Environmental Conference of Rio de Janeiro (1992), international and...