Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, has repeatedly stressed the importance of supporting the forest sector to effectively manage forests as a tool for ecological transition, on Thursday 25 April, at a conference on forests organised by the European Commission.
"To achieve the transition to climate-neutrality, our forests will help us – but we will need to help our forests, and the people working with our forests, to tackle the challenges ahead and find sustainable solutions", said Mr Cañete.
According to him, one of the main challenges of the European Union's climate policy is to define a "fair balance" between the two key climate functions of forests: the absorption of CO2 and the supply of biomass for material or energy purposes.
"They [policy makers and forest owners] need to promote smart use of biomass while ensuring that forest carbon sinks are enhanced, and also make sure that other environmental aspects, such as biodiversity and water use, are not negatively affected", he explained.
In his view, helping the forestry sector to strike this balance between "management" and "use" of forests will be one of the factors that will determine whether or not the EU will succeed in meeting the climate challenge.
Therefore, he assured that after discussions with experts, professional associations and NGOs, the Commission would publish, in the coming months, recommendations to present, by the end of 2019, reviewed national baselines (for accounting for CO2 emissions and removals from forests) against which future forest carbon sinks will be compared.
The Commissioner also hoped for rapid progress in the area of carbon farming - whereby payments are made to foresters based on the amount of carbon they remove from the atmosphere - and for widespread adoption of this concept. In his view, this is an effective way to provide direct incentives for climate-friendly forest management.
"We [the Commission] are currently carrying out a study that will develop guidelines for the design of carbon farming schemes, and we directly support this type of projects via the LIFE programme", he then stated.
More generally, Mr Cañete called on "all parties" to strengthen action against climate change because, even if Member States met their commitments under the Paris Agreement, global temperatures are expected to rise by 2.7 to 3.4°C by 2100 compared to the pre-industrial era, well above the maximum 2°C target set by the agreement.
He concluded: "The way we manage our forests is essential for achieving our climate goals for the next decades... now it is time for implementation". (Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)