Canfor Calls on BC Government to Rethink Old Growth Deferral Process

The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) and other forest groups around the world welcome the official signing of the United Nations agreement on climate change that was reached late last year in Paris. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is among world leaders in New York for the signing ceremony. The global forest products industry has a highly significant role to play in Canada achieving its targets outlined in this deal, says Derek Nighbor, CEO of FPAC. “Canada’s forest products companies have made it clear that we intend to step up to the plate and help in the transition to a low-carbon economy here in Canada and elsewhere around the world,” he says. ”The global forest products industry has made significant strides in reducing its carbon footprint, stocking carbon and generating greenhouse gas removals—all helping to mitigate climate change,” said the President of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations, Elizabeth de Carvalhaes of the Brazilian Tree Industry.

Robert Glowinski, President and CEO, AWC: “We support clean air and realistic, science-based air quality standards. However, a further restriction is not justified because the health effects evidence for ozone has not changed significantly since EPA last tightened the ozone NAAQS in 2008. In fact, EPA just published the 2008 Ozone Implementation rule earlier this month, seven years after it set the new standard. So before EPA again changes the rules, the 2008 standard should first be fully implemented by the states and its impacts assessed before the goal posts are moved once more.” Donna Harman, President and CEO, AF&PA: “The costs of further tightening the standard are significant when there is such scientific uncertainty. EPA’s own cost benefit analysis would make the ozone rule one of the most expensive air regulations ever. The proposed revisions could place most of the country in nonattainment, putting five times more paper and wood product mills at risk.”

The benefits of wood construction include the material’s lightness and fast construction. The most relevant aspect where climate change is concerned, however, is the unique ability of wood structures to store carbon in themselves for their entire life-cycle. For example, an average Finnish single-family house built from wood stores roughly 30 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide within its wooden structures. This is equal to the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the average miles driven by one person over a period of 10 years. The biggest growth opportunities of wood use lie in industrial construction, as well as in the construction of additional floors onto existing buildings and renovating them. By increasing the use of wood, we can considerably reduce the consumption of non-renewable natural resources and construction’s carbon dioxide emissions. “Forest industry products play an important role in the mitigation of climate change. Every wood structure stores carbon, some for as long as hundreds of years. We must move from the fossil economy towards a resource-smart bioeconomy, and increasing the volume of wood construction is one of the essential ways of doing this,” says Juha Laine, SVP, Communications of Metsä Group.