The use of forests in energy production is neutral with regard to the climate change, but if the wood is used as raw-material in manufacturing, the use of forests may even decrease the climate change. In order to reach this one must, however, take care of the regeneration and growth of new forest. If this is done, the positive impact of forest use increases, thanks to the carbon store in forest products – because every carbon atom which is sequestered in a product is not in the atmosphere.
Storing carbon in forest products requires that their life cycle is as long as possible. The products of mechanical forest industry, such as furniture and wooden houses, have longer life cycles.
The amount of carbon contained in sawn goods and wooden panels in Finnish buildings has increased since 1980. However, the annual growth of the carbon content of products manufactured in 1980’s was only 1.3 percent of the carbon emissions from fossil fuels in Finland. In 1990–95 the percentage was 0.8.
It has been estimated that the carbon content of timber products made from Finnish timber – excluding waste timber and paper products – is seven percent of all biomass in the country. This calculation includes products which have been exported. On average, carbon is stored for just under 40 years in the timber used in construction in Finland. Furniture contains significantly less carbon than construction products.
However, the alternatives to timber, such as steel, aluminium and plastic, contain more energy. It must be remembered that this is fossil energy.
With the help of forests, Western Europe could remove atmospheric carbon up to 2–4 times more effectively than at present. This would require that fields were afforested, felling was increased, timber products had a longer life cycle, fossil fuels were replaced by timber and, possibly, that timber was permanently stored to exclude carbon from the natural circulation.
In Finland, these possibilities are already in use to a great extent. The use of sawn goods is much more extensive in Finland than in Central Europe, the use of timber for energy production is widespread, especially in the forest industry, and the potential of increasing the forest area is smaller in Finland than elsewhere in Europe.
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