The UK timber industry is urging world leaders to agree on a workable action plan for timber sustainability at the forthcoming COP15 climate change convention in Copenhagen.
While timber will feature on the agenda, The Timber Trade Federation (TTF) has appealed to delegates to introduce a ‘global cap and trade scheme’, which it says will discriminate in favour of sustainable timber – and help address the global issue of illegally traded wood.
TTJ chief executive John White said: “Timber is quite simply the greenest building material known to man, if managed sustainably. Putting timber at the top of the agenda at the COP15 summit should be an easy win for all concerned.”
Mr White said other countries should learn from the UK’s example “which shows that it is both possible and profitable to have a sustainable timber industry”.
A recent report showed that FSC– and PEFC-certified timber now accounts for almost 85% of timber in the UK.
The TTF is lobbying for the COP15 summit to deliver a global cap and trade scheme that allows the price of carbon to be internalised into the cost of goods and services purchased. “This will discriminate in favour of sustainably grown wood because wood absorbs and stores carbon giving wood a price advantage over more polluting products,” said Mr White.
