Attendees at the inaugural Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) National Forest Industries Symposium were offered insights from FWPA on the role of commercial forestry in offsetting carbon emissions from Australia’s biggest companies, and simultaneously helping to solve the global housing crisis.
The symposium was attended by a cross section of industry stakeholders including growers, processors, manufacturers, transporters, retailers, researchers and government. Delegates heard from industry leaders about current challenges, and learned about new research and emerging innovations.
FWPA Managing Director Ric Sinclair gave a presentation focusing on two of the major challenges today’s world is facing — climate change due to carbon emissions and housing an ever-growing global population.
Australia’s annual net emissions are currently 494 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e). Enterprises listed in the ASX50 account for approximately 13 per cent of that figure, while forestry (alongside land use change) accounts for minus 4.9 per cent.
To illustrate the importance of forestry in mitigating climate change, the audience was presented with the concept of ‘the virtuous cycle’.
Essentially, the virtuous cycle hinges on the reality that increased demand for wood equals more commercial forestry, and therefore more trees in the ground. Thanks to the ability of wood to capture and store carbon, as well as the emissions avoided by not using more carbon-intensive alternatives, greater use of wood has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
The presentation went on to consider approaches the ASX50 could take to carbon abatement that would offset 10 per cent of emissions over the next 25 years. Land-use carbon abatement strategies including commercial forestry and environmental plantings, were highlighted as forming a key pillar of any company’s optimum approach.
Of the available land-use abatement tactics, commercial plantations may be seen as preferable because they abate between 1.3 and 3.5 times more CO2-e per hectare than environmental plantings, while offering more predictable and potentially lower establishment costs.
One industry ripe for potential growth when it comes to timber usage is construction. In fact, a one per cent increase in structural timber market share has the estimated potential to reduce emissions by between 0.8 and 2.6 Mt CO2-e by 2050. More timber in construction also brings the obvious additional benefit of helping to solve the global housing crisis.
The presentation went on to consider how to promote the opportunities around carbon offsets and commercial forestry amongst businesses, the community and government.
“One important element of any approach to ensuring more political and public support for timber use is likely to involve a costly and prolonged process of ‘fighting the counter intuitive’,” said Sinclair.
“This will include education around wood’s ability to store carbon, the opportunities to build safely using timber with fire in mind, and how harvesting and replanting trees is of benefit to the environment.”
