Region Archives: International

UK – The evidence to support climate change continues to grow. Last month the Met Office published ‘The State of the UK Climate’ (2020) which assessed the current situation in the UK. Data collated over the past 12 months. The report confirmed that the UK’s climate is already changing… Climate change poses a direct risk to commercial forestry, particularly through increased frequency and severity of drought events, and threats to tree health from pests and diseases. Although some northern areas may become more suitable for tree growth in the future, hotter, drier conditions in the south and east are likely to limit yield for some species… The difficulty lies in translating the facts and figures into an understanding of what our local ecology may look like in 50 years’ time.

…dead, rotting branches or stumps in the forest play another important role we have little understanding of on a global scale: the carbon deadwood releases as it decomposes, with part of it going into the soil and part into the atmosphere. …The world’s deadwood currently stores 73 billion tonnes of carbon. Our new research in Nature has, for the first time, calculated that 10.9 billion tonnes of this (around 15%) is released into the atmosphere and soil each year — a little more than the world’s emissions from burning fossil fuels. …Our aim was to measure the influence of climate and insects on the rate of decomposition — but it wasn’t easy. …To improve climate change predictions, we need much more detailed research on how communities of decomposer insects (such as the numbers of individuals and species) influence deadwood decomposition, not to mention potential effects from insect diversity loss.

Can planting trees in Guizhou province cancel out emissions from natural gas burned for energy in offices and homes across China? That’s the idea behind a deal struck in July by oil major Shell to supply PetroChina with an undisclosed quantity of liquefied natural gas branded “carbon neutral”. The deal was part of a nascent but growing trend, in which fossil fuel shipments are paired with carbon offsets… …Companies around the world have flocked to buy offsets from groups that plant and protect trees… However, who is using offsets, and how many, is often unclear. There is no requirement for buyers to disclose this information. …The current offsets market “operates in the shadows”, with some good “but lots of bad” in the system, says former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, now U.N. special envoy on climate action and finance. “That does actual harm.”

More than 10.3 million acres of primary tropical forests… went up in flames in 2020. A new coalition claims it will mobilize $1 billion to thwart global climate change’s increasingly devastating forest fires. But scientists and other experts have raised doubts about this new program corporations and governments have kicked off. Primary tropical forests are untouched by human development. More than 1 billion people live in and depend on the world’s tropical forests, and nearly 300 million people live in lands targeted for tropical forest restoration, according to Rights and Resources Initiative, a non-governmental organization… The new coalition is called “Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance”—or LEAF—and it is expected to become “the single largest private-sector investment to protect tropical forests.” … Experts have raised this coalitional strategy could further marginalize communities dwelling in tropical forests across the developing world [and question] the effectiveness of strategies that aim to raise funding to halt deforestation.

The international study reported today in Nature, found that intact tropical mountain (or montane) forests in Africa store around 150 tonnes of carbon per hectare… The study found that African mountain forests store more carbon per unit area than the Amazon rainforest and are similar in structure to lowland forests in Africa. Existing guidelines for African mountain forests – which assume 89 tonnes of carbon per hectare – greatly underestimate their role in global climate regulation. The international team also investigated how much tropical mountain forest had been lost from the African continent in the past 20 years. They found that 0.8 million hectares have been lost, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, emitting over 450 million tonnes of CO22 into the atmosphere. If current deforestation rates continue, a further 0.5 million hectares of these forests would be lost by 2030.

Discussions are going on about the EU-Commission’s new forest strategy. In the discussions, sawn timber is pointed out as a winner and bioenergy from the forest as a looser. Considering that, it’s interesting to read Wood Resources International’s report about the European market for wood pellets. It is a growing market that will need lots of raw material for production of wood pellets in the future. …The European market accounts for 75 % of the World’s consumption of wood pellets. WRI predicts a strong growth of this market, at least until 2025. …The reason for this is, according to WRI, that EU have ambitious goals for the share of renewable energy and where biomass will play an important role to reach the goals. …Contrary to what one might think when following the debate about EU’s climate and forestry strategies there seems to be a continued large space for wood-based biofuels.

As climate change requires attention…The Korea Forest Service has for years been making efforts to enhance sustainable management of forests in developing countries. Such efforts are in line with the country’s commitment to the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program it signed with the UN in 2005. Abbreviated as REDD+, the members of the program are awarded with direct financial incentives, or carbon credits, that could later be used to compensate for carbon emissions made elsewhere, for their efforts to preserve forests in other countries. …The Korea Forest Service has made efforts to preserve forests in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos — since 2012. …Another area that the body seeks to strengthen public-corporate partnerships regards the LEAF Coalition — an alliance of governments including the United States, which aims to raise $1 billion in funds to protect tropical forests and respond to climate crises.

China will plant 36,000 square kilometres of new forest a year until 2025 as a measure to combat climate change and better protect natural habitats, a senior forestry official says. Tree planting has been at the heart of China’s environmental efforts for decades and is a major part of plans to bring carbon emissions down to net zero by 2060. The total area pledged to have trees planted each year is greater than the size of Belgium and is being described as “land greening” by Li Chunliang, vice-chairman of the State Forestry and Grasslands Commission. …China aims to raise its overall forest coverage rate from 23.04 to 24.1 per cent by the end of 2025, according to its forest and grassland five-year plan published this week.

A major political and environmental dispute is coming to a boil in the run-up to COP26 in Scotland this November, as the EU and the forestry industry push forest biomass, claiming the science shows biomass is sustainable and produces zero emissions. Forest advocates and many scientists sit squarely on the other side of the argument, providing evidence that biomass burning is destructive to forests and biodiversity, is dirtier than coal, and destabilizing for the climate. Moreover, they say, the carbon neutrality claim is an accounting error that will greatly increase carbon emissions. These views collided in July when the European Commission called for only minor revisions to its legally binding Renewable Energy Directive in regard to biomass policy as part of the EU Green Deal. …The EU decision to include wood pellets as part of its clean energy mix could help shape global biomass policy at COP26.

The head of climate diplomacy at the British High Commission will discuss the UK’s road to net-zero with the help of forestry and timber at the National Forest Industries Symposium. It comes after the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) secured Mr Akhil Abraham as a key presenter for the totally virtual event on Wednesday September 1. The Symposium will feature Mr Abraham joining the lead biomaterials scientist for Volvo Sandra Tostar who will speak about the car maker’s race for wood-fibre in new vehicles as well as the Forestry Products Association of Canada CEO Derek Nighbor who will discuss social licence issues ahead of the Canadian election. Other presenters include the Managing Director of Forest and Wood Products Australia – Ric Sinclair. …AFPA’s Ross Hampton said, “If the world wants to reduce carbon emissions, sustainable forestry will need to be a central part of the solution. …Symposium tickets can be purchased here.