Gordon Murray

In November 2024, I was part of an Alberta forest industry Trade Mission to Japan… Participants included Alberta ministry officials and wood products manufacturers, as well as Canada Wood and the Alberta Forest Products Association. The mission’s focus was to strengthen partnerships and showcase Alberta as a trusted supplier of wood products. It included the annual Wood Pellet Association of Canada customer appreciation dinner, Canada Wood’s Wood Forum, the BC Council of Forest Industries 50th Anniversary Reception… Japan is the fastest-growing import market in the world for wood pellets, driven by the government’s policy initiatives to mitigate pollution from coal and supported by a long-term feed-in-tariff (FIT) for biomass energy. The country aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero to make Japan a carbon-neutral, decarbonized society by 2050 and aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent by 2030. Canadian wood pellets are part of the solution for Japan.