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Forest industry pledges to be carbon-neutral
Tuesday, 30 October 2007 - 1:02pm
And they’ll do it, they say, without resorting to offsets—the controversial practice in which polluters continue to spew emissions, but contribute to projects elsewhere that claim to reduce them.
But the effort must extend beyond forests and mills to wood and paper consumers, such as construction sites, homes, and offices, said Avrim Lazar, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada.
The aim is to protect both the environment and the industry’s bottom line, said Lazar, who was to announce the pledge this morning in Ottawa.
Global demand for wood products is soaring, he noted.
“If people continue to do it the old way . . . it won’t be very good for the planet,” Lazar warned.
The devastating spread of pine beetles in British Columbia—partly because winters are no longer cold enough to kill the insects—is a wake-up call, he added.
“We got a lesson in the impact of climate change before most of the rest of Canada,” Lazar noted.
As well, global buyers increasingly demand products from “sustainable” operations.
That can be an edge for Canadian firms, which face fierce competition from China, Brazil, and other places where trees grow faster, costs are lower, and environment rules can be lax.
The Canadian industry has reduced its greenhouse emissions 44 percent since 1990, when its output increased by 20 percent.
That puts it far ahead of Canada’s Kyoto Protocol target—a six percent cut.
“We hope other industries will rise to the challenge” of doing the same, or better, said Lorne Johnson of World Wildlife Fund Canada, which is working with the association.
Other green groups are on an advisory panel.
Johnson added the odds are good the industry will meet the target. “They’re already doing a good job,” he said.
TORONTO—Canada’s forest industry says it will be carbon neutral by 2015.
The forest companies say their logging, paper, and pulp operations, and the products they produce, will, in effect, no longer be a source of greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
But the effort must extend beyond forests and mills to wood and paper consumers, such as construction sites, homes, and offices, said Avrim Lazar, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada.
The aim is to protect both the environment and the industry’s bottom line, said Lazar, who was to announce the pledge this morning in Ottawa.
Global demand for wood products is soaring, he noted.
“If people continue to do it the old way . . . it won’t be very good for the planet,” Lazar warned.
The devastating spread of pine beetles in British Columbia—partly because winters are no longer cold enough to kill the insects—is a wake-up call, he added.
“We got a lesson in the impact of climate change before most of the rest of Canada,” Lazar noted.
As well, global buyers increasingly demand products from “sustainable” operations.
That can be an edge for Canadian firms, which face fierce competition from China, Brazil, and other places where trees grow faster, costs are lower, and environment rules can be lax.
The Canadian industry has reduced its greenhouse emissions 44 percent since 1990, when its output increased by 20 percent.
That puts it far ahead of Canada’s Kyoto Protocol target—a six percent cut.
“We hope other industries will rise to the challenge” of doing the same, or better, said Lorne Johnson of World Wildlife Fund Canada, which is working with the association.
Other green groups are on an advisory panel.
Johnson added the odds are good the industry will meet the target. “They’re already doing a good job,” he said.
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