Managing EU forests differently could mean them absorbing twice as much CO2 each year, says Greenpeace

According to a report published by Greenpeace on Thursday 3 December, reducing exploitation of the EU’s forests by a third could double their carbon absorption potential over a year, from 245.4 million tonnes of CO₂ per year to 487.8 million tonnes, more than France’s total annual national emissions.

The report, which was produced by Naturwald Akademie at the NGO’s request, states that EU forests are very intensively exploited, with 77% of their annual growth harvested for timber.

The document goes on to point out that reducing this rate to 50% could result in doubling the forests’ carbon absorption potential.

The current trend is in the opposite direction, however. According to the NGO, the rate of exploitation of EU forests increased by around 20% between 2000 and 2018, driven in particular by the sharp increase (+47%) in timber harvested for energy purposes.

Greenpeace stresses that ending the exploitation of forests for energy purposes alone would lead to an additional 210.5 million tonnes of CO₂ being absorbed by EU forests annually, and calls on the European Commission to exclude energy generated by burning wood from forests, other than wood waste, from its renewable energy targets.

The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3ojS0JR (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)