The European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a pivotal component of the EU Green Deal, has swiftly emerged as a point of concern for the European and global pulp and paper industries. This concern does not arise from a lack of comprehension of the EUDR’s objective, but from the numerous areas of ambiguity surrounding its implementation. …The EUDR is projected to reshape trade and supply chains for industries that can be erroneously associated with deforestation, such as pulp and paper. Companies will face increased operational expenses, regulatory scrutiny and the threat of fines for non-compliance, which could reach a minimum of 4% of the annual turnover, confiscation of goods and even a temporary ban from participating in EU procurement. Selling products into the EU will lead to higher costs for companies, undoubtedly leading to price increases when selling in Europe.
Lumber prices rebounded toward $500 per thousand board feet, moving away from the eight-month low of $488 observed from June 4th as the latest US data lifted the demand outlook. Softer-than-expected US inflation data, which bolstered expectations for multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, added further optimism for reduced mortgage rates amid a sharp decline in US Treasury yields. Still, housing starts continued to struggle amid high rates and home prices continue to weigh on home builders. Mortgage rates remained above 7% for over two months, while building permits in the US sank for a second straight month in April, limiting the outlook for wood and housing construction materials.
A closely-watched report on US inflation showed consumer price increases cooled during the month of May, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday morning. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) remained flat over the previous month and rose 3.3% over the prior year in May — a deceleration from April’s 0.3% month-over-month increase and 3.4% annual gain in prices. Both measures came in lower than economist expectations. It was the lowest monthly headline reading since July 2022. A decline in energy prices, led by a drop in gas prices, contributed to further downward pressure on headline CPI. …”The CPI release for May is very good news for the Federal Reserve and it is going to be even better news for the PCE price index, which will be released at the end of the month,” Raymond James’ Chief Economist Eugenio Aleman said.
Colorado School of Mines professor Shiling Pei’s research is helping lead the way for a revolution in construction using strong, lightweight, renewable timber. “We submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to ask, ‘can we build a resilient, tall wood building in seismic regions made of mass timber?'” Pei explained. Pei was part of a group that made history in San Diego. …Pei’s research tackled one key component: how a mass timber skyscraper would handle an earthquake. …This research, according to Pei, is invaluable for establishing that this building type, a carbon-storing renewable resource, can exist on the West Coast of the U.S. and become a preferred building type for skyscrapers. But what about Denver — an area without much seismic activity? According to Greg Kingsley, president of KL&A Engineers, the Mile High City has been at the forefront of mass timber building technology.
Concrete is perhaps the most commonly used building material in the world. With a bit of tweaking, it could help to power our homes too. On a laboratory bench in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a stack of polished cylinders of black-coloured concrete sit bathed in liquid and entwined in cables. To a casual observer, they aren’t doing much. But then Damian Stefaniuk flicks a switch. The blocks of human-made rock are wired up to an LED – and the bulb flickers into life. …Despite some new discoveries of lithium reserves, the finite supply of this material… has driven the search for alternative battery materials. This is where Stefaniuk and his concrete come in. He and his colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way of creating an energy storage device known as a supercapacitor from three basic, cheap materials – water, cement and a soot-like substance called carbon black.
A week after his presidential inauguration, Joe Biden cited the climate and biodiversity crises as reasons to set a sweeping new goal – to conserve at least 30% of America’s vast lands and waters by the end of the decade. Three years on, new protections have spurred meaningful progress towards meeting the target by 2030. …As Biden took office, about 12% of US land had been protected by previous administrations. About 41m acres has been placed under some form of new protection across public and private lands during Biden’s term, meaning that about 13% of the US’s landmass is now deemed protected, up by about 1%. A far smaller expanse of US waters have been newly conserved under Biden but the aquatic side of the goal is closer with 26% currently protected and with new designations planned for territories in the Pacific Ocean set to push the total above the 30% target.
About two dozen projects aimed at saving imperiled fish and amphibians are getting a share of $10 million, the first round of grants to come out of Oregon’s landmark agreement on managing private forest lands. For years, conservationists and timber industry groups debated how to protect fish, frogs and salamanders while also logging trees on 10 million acres of privately owned lands. They came to an agreement called the Private Forest Accord, signed by former Gov. Kate Brown in 2022. As part of the agreement, the state would pool money into a grant program for habitat conservation projects around the state. This year, about $10 million were awarded to 25 projects. …In addition, the Private Forest Accord ushered in logging regulations to protect sensitive fish and other aquatic species including increased stream buffers and leaving more trees behind when logging on steep slopes.
Summers keep getting hotter, and the consequences are impossible to miss. …One driving force behind these projections are the alternating Pacific Ocean climate patterns known as El Niño and La Niña, which can create huge shifts in temperature and precipitation across the North and South American continents. After almost a year of El Niño, La Niña is expected to take the reins sometime during the upcoming summer months. As climate change cooks the planet and the Pacific shifts between these two cyclical forces, experts say the conditions could be ripe for more extreme weather events. “We’ve always had this pattern of El Niño, La Niña. Now it’s happening on top of a warmer world,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, an environmental data science nonprofit. “We need to be ready for the types of extremes that have not been tested in the past.”
After more than three decades on Wall Street, Tom Montag thought he’d seen most forms of financial wizardry. Then Hank Paulson asked him to tackle carbon offsets. …The goal was to “unleash as much carbon finance as possible,” Montag said. But a string of scandals threw the anticipated boom into question. …Prices for carbon offsets tracked by MSCI peaked in 2022, when Paulson recruited Montag, and have been on a downward trajectory since. …Montag and other backers on Wall Street haven’t blinked. They’ve remained convinced companies and governments will eventually embrace carbon offsets as an indispensable climate solution in a world racing to reach net zero emissions. And last month, Rubicon signed a deal with Microsoft Corp., one of the world’s largest offset buyers, to generate credits from a tree-planting project in Panama. …Offset bulls recently scored big wins. The US just issued the US government’s first-ever official blessing of the credits.
