United States President-elect Donald Trump has gained the Senate, Electoral College, and popular votes. What does this mean for our forest industry? China is our largest purchaser of logs… In addition, exports of wood furniture from China have risen 24% in the first seven months of 2024 — great news; then along came the Don. The US accounts for 27% of the furniture exports out of China which totalled $20 billion in 2023. The current tariff for Chinese furniture into the US is 5.4%. Trump’s increased tariffs [between 32.8% and 54.3% on furniture] are predicted to result in a reduction in demand for Chinese manufactured product by between 73% and 87% respectively. If we assume the midpoint of 80%, this would result in a total demand reduction of around 350 million pieces of furniture… New Zealand radiata is a favoured product for the Chinese furniture industry… Therefore, any reduction in demand for Chinese furniture products is going to directly impact on us.
BRUSSELS – The European Parliament sought on Thursday to water down a ban on the import of commodities such as beef and soy linked to deforestation, and backed a one year delay to the new rule, in a fresh push-back against the EU’s environmental agenda. The European Commission proposed a 12-month delay until December 2025 last month after complaints from a group of 20 EU countries, some companies and non-EU countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States. However, it did not propose any changes to the substance of the law. …The parliament’s narrow vote to add a new ‘no risk’ category of countries with far lighter controls adds to uncertainty over the regulation as lawmakers will have to enter negotiations with EU governments. …Environmental groups said the vote was a terrible signal. Julia Christian at Fern, said the amendment would give EU forested countries a free pass and was “particularly egregious”.
In a significant development for the European plywood industry, the Greenwood Consortium has filed an anti-dumping complaint against Chinese hardwood plywood imports, citing low pricing as a threat to the EU’s plywood sector. This move has sparked an industry-wide debate, dividing opinions between those advocating for industry protection and those concerned about the potential impact on trade, imports, and European consumers. The Greenwood Consortium, a newly established coalition of nine European plywood producers, initially aimed to curb illegal imports of Russian birch plywood entering Europe via China. However, the scope of its campaign has since expanded to include all Chinese hardwood plywood, alleging that these imports are unfairly priced and harm the European industry. …In response, the Plywood Trade Interest Alliance… opposes a broad ban on Chinese plywood, arguing that such restrictions would harm the EU economy, compromise supply chain stability, and strain relations with China.
Registration is open and delegates from around the world are invited to Brisbane, Australia to attend the 2025 World Conference on Timber Engineering, June 22 – 26. WCTE is the world’s premier scientific dissemination forum for presenting and discussing the latest technical and architectural developments and innovations in timber engineering and construction. The scope covers research, education, and practice topics from all over the world. There is a rise in engineering and architectural firms, developers and investors, now emphasizing timber engineering as a preferred solution for many projects, providing further relevance and importance to the research carried out by the timber design and construction community. A number of exemplar buildings and structures are located within Brisbane, providing an ideal opportunity for site visits as part of WCTE 2025; whilst some stunning examples of modern timber buildings can also be seen in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Forests are being cut and degraded at an alarming rate, especially in the tropics, with the expansion of agricultural land causing almost 90% of forest reduction, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A first-of-its-kind law called the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), was designed to take steps to counter this. …The legislation was heralded by proponents as a breakthrough in the global battle against forest loss, it came into force in June 2023 and was due to be implemented at the end of this year. But since it was passed, several agriculture ministries — including those of Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden — have called for implementation to be postponed. …in 2023, the world lost some 37,000 square kilometers of tropical forest… A 12-month delay would mean additional global forest loss of about 2,300 square kilometers, according to EU studies.
A recent in-depth study, “Preliminary Evidence of Softwood Shortage and Hardwood Availability in EU Regions,” has shed light on significant supply imbalances within Europe’s forest-based bioeconomy. Researchers from Wageningen University, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and other institutions analyzed data from the European Forest Industry Database (EUFID), revealing critical mismatches between wood resources and processing capacities across European countries. The 
The battle to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius has been a rallying cry for climate action for nearly a decade. Now, with the planet almost certain to blow past the target, diplomats and campaigners at the COP29 summit have found themselves awkwardly clinging to a goal that no longer makes sense. The evidence has become harder and harder to ignore. This year will once again be the hottest on record as greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar and Earth will likely register an average reading of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. A study released this month using a new technique for measuring the rise in temperatures suggests the world was 
Is it possible to heat the planet to dangerous levels and then cool it down later? Economic models charting the world’s path to net zero emissions say yes. However, this bet on future large-scale carbon removal risks becoming a “get out of jail free” clause that allows high emissions to continue inflaming the climate crisis. A new study by leading scientists has criticised the overconfidence of policymakers and climate modellers – even the authors of the 2015 Paris agreement – for making this gamble. Their research highlights the pitfalls of assuming temperature thresholds can be safely exceeded and then reinstated. They’re right – and the problem runs even deeper. The challenge of implementing carbon removal at the scale required isn’t simply a matter of the technology being available and cost effective to deploy. Large-scale CO₂ removal depends on there being vast amounts of land to store carbon in trees and soil.
For the next two weeks, countries will gather on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss how to increase finance for climate crisis adaptation and mitigation. A global agreement on carbon markets will be high on the agenda as countries try to find ways of generating the trillions they need to decarbonise in order to limit heating to below 2C above preindustrial levels. …Carbon markets facilitate the trading of carbon credits. Each credit is equal to a tonne of carbon dioxide that has been reduced or removed from the atmosphere. They come from a wide range of sources: tree-planting schemes, forest protection and renewable energy projects are all common. …Where do they feature in the Paris Agreement? …Why are they so controversial? ….What are the risks if it goes badly?