Be Part of the Solution

Forestry practices can make a significant contribution by reducing greenhouse gas emissions through increasing the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the national forest estate, by burning wood for fuel, and by using wood as a substitute for energy-intensive materials such as concrete and steel.

When it comes to mitigating climate change, the world’s forests and forest products are part of the solution. Government and business leaders can help by developing policies and procurement processes that encourage the use of more forest products from well-managed forests.

- UK government strategy for sustainable development

Many jurisdictions are taking action already:

In many European countries, legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions often leads to increased use of wood, or consideration of wood as a preferred building material. Changes in national building regulations are encouraging multi-story wood buildings; the largest timber-frame building in the United Kingdom is seven stories.
In France, the government requires that new public buildings must have at least 0.2 cubic metres of wood for every one square metre of floor area. This encourages designers to identify opportunities to use wood as a structural material as well as for floors, doors, molding or other design features.
As part of its promotion of a carbon-neutral public service, the Government of New Zealand is requiring that wood or wood-based products be considered as the main structural materials for new government-funded buildings up to four floors.
In Canada, the governments of British Columbia and Quebec are moving to policies that will encourage the use of wood in public buildings.
The BC government is also encouraging increased production and use of bio-energy, as evidenced by the “Call for Power” issued by BC Hydro.
Members of the European Union (EU) have agreed on a binding target to reach a 20 per cent share of renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, biogas, wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy) in the total energy output of the EU by 2020.

How companies respond to issues related to climate change is an indication of their corporate social responsibility. Many major companies have procurement policies that offer a preference for forest products certified to the three independent certification programs used in Canada. Increasing consumer demand for certified wood and paper products is being addressed by growth in chain-of-custody certification, which tracks fibre from a certified forest to the end user.

The Chicago Carbon Exchange has endorsed independent certification as evidence of sustainable forest management. The exchange is a legally binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of major greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, with offset projects worldwide. Projects eligible for forest carbon sequestration include afforestation and forest enrichment, urban tree planting, and in specified regions, combined afforestation and forest conservation projects.

Resource managers are taking climate change into account in their forest planning activities, selecting species that increase the resilience of the forest and are more likely to survive in future climates.