Recommendations on how to include harvested wood products within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been published.
The policy recommendations by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Sustainable Forest Products Industry working group outlines key evidence supporting the inclusion of harvested wood products and recommends specific text to allow negotiators to leverage benefits.
Benefits include carbon storage capacity – net annual growth of CO2 stored in harvested wood products is estimated at 424 million tonnes.
Another benefit is avoiding carbon emissions when harvested wood products are substituted for more energy inensive alternatives – estimated current annual avoided emissions associated with wood-based building products is 483 million tonnes of CO2.
The policy statement, released in anticipation of the UNFCCC meetings in Durban, is being distributed to the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations as an advocacy tool for its association members.
