Research Reports
Policy Issues on Wood Demand and Supply to Tackle Climate Change
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AuthorMin, Kyungtaek
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Publication Date2011.11.30
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Original
Wood products have many attributes that make them a smart choice when it comes to climate change. First, much of the carbon absorbed by growing trees is stored in products. Using more wood also means less fossil fuel consumption. Wood is endlessly renewable, and life cycle assessment studies show that it requires substantially less energy to manufacture than other materials such as steel and concrete. Wood buildings can be easily deconstructed and reused, which means they can continue to store carbon indefinitely. And using wood from sustainably managed forests helps to ensure that forests and their carbon storage potential continue to grow, which contribute to local community economy. This report focuses on international forest policies related to climate change and their implications to Korean forestry and the forest products sector, and some policy suggestions are made.
Climate change and climate change mitigation are currently hot topics at the international level. Forest is carbon sink but also regarded as carbon emitter when it is deforested and degraded. REDD(Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and HWP(Harvested Wood Products) are important issues at the post-Kyoto Protocol. Illegal logging is also a major issue in the wood products trade.
Major developed countries adopt wood promotion policies to tackle climate change and construct a low-carbon green economy. They promote the merits and provide some technical information when using wood.
In Korea, wood consumption is about 27 million cubic meters per year, and self-sufficiency of wood is 13.5%. Domestic wood is used to produce pulp and particle boards in large part. Poor forest resource structure, high cost in wood harvest, negative perceptions to harvest, and low infrastructures are challenging issues in domestic wood supply.
The Korean government also adopts Low Carbon Green Growth as a policy base. The demand for wood biomass energy is increasing. These are opportunities to the wood industry. But high production cost in wood harvest and the thin wood consumption culture are weaknesses. We should establish a wood promotion strategy to overcome weaknesses and exploit opportunities.
We made some policy suggestions to promote wood use as follows:
1) campaign to increase the utilization and consumption of wood in the public side
2) develop and disseminate durable wood goods, such as engineered wood
3) adopt carbon labelling to show the carbon sequestration function of wood products
4) increase wood supply through utilization of forest residues, short-rotation coppice in idle farmland, and international cooperaton
5) establish technical standards to certify the safety of wood products
6) legislate wood utilization to tackle climate change.
Researchers: Min, Kyung-Taek; Chang, Cheol-Su and Hur, Gyong-Tae
E-mail address: minkt@krei.re.kr
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