...and forest products

Storing carbon in forest products, in its turn, requires that their life cycle is as long as possible. In paper products, for instance, carbon cannot be stored for very long, and the period is further shortened by the recycling of paper. The products of mechanical forest industry, such as furniture and wooden houses, have longer life cycles. Taken to its extreme limits, the increasing of carbon stores in the products also requires that the growth of trees is intensified, which may be in conflict with the protection of biodiversity.

The carbon content of sawn goods and wooden panels in Finnish buildings has increased since 1980. However, the annual growth of the carbon content of products manufactured between 1980–90 was only 1.3 percent of the carbon emissions from fossil fuels in Finland. It has been estimated that the carbon content of timber products made of Finnish timber – excluding waste timber and paper products – is seven percent of the biomass in the country. This calculation includes products which have been exported. On an average, carbon is stored just under 40 years in the timber used in construction in Finland.

Furniture contains clearly less carbon than construction products. However, the alternatives to timber, such as steel, aluminium and plastic, contain more energy, and it must be remembered that it 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, timber was permanently stored to exclude carbon from the natural circulation. In Finland, these possibilities are to a great extent already in use. The use of sawn goods is much more extensive in Finland than in Central Europe, the use of timber for energy production is very widespread, especially in forest industry, and the potential of increasing forest area is smaller in Finland than elsewhere in Europe.

23. Forest sector and circulation of carbon.

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