Technical Bulletin No. 1098: Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Profile of the Global Forest Products Industry, 2007–2022
Authored by:
Reid Miner, NCASI (Retired)
Barry Malmberg, PhD, Director – Sustainability
Adam Costanza, Senior Program Manager, Sustainability Metrics and Reporting
Hector Restrepo, PhD, NCASI (Formerly)
Kirsten Vice, Senior Vice President, Sustainability and Canadian Operations
Abstract
In this NCASI Technical Bulletin, an industry greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon profile for 2022 is developed and compared to an updated 2007 profile. The results reveal that, over this period, GHG emissions from the forest products industry value chain increased from 1,006 to 1,175 million metric tons CO2 equivalents (CO2e). This does not include biogenic CO2, which is discussed below. The GHG emissions intensity of the value chain increased slightly, from 1.31 to 1.38 metric tons CO2e per metric ton of production.
Fuel combustion and purchases of electricity are the two most important sources of emissions in the value chain, each representing 23%-27% of 2022 value chain emissions. Direct emissions of GHGs from fuel combustion remained essentially constant between 2007 and 2022, despite a 7% increase in paper and paperboard production and a 14% increase in wood products production. Emissions associated with purchased power increased by 28% over this period, faster than the growth in production. The increase is likely due to (1) faster production growth in regions with more GHG-intensive power grids and (2) a trend toward more electricity-intensive technologies. GHG emissions from landfilled products at end of life are also a significant part of the industry’s profile, representing between 18% and 21% of the industry’s global value chain GHG emissions. These three emissions categories account for approximately two-thirds of value chain emissions. Transport is the only other aspect of the industry’s value chain contributing more than 10% of the value chain emissions.
Calculating net biogenic CO2 emissions from the industry’s value chain requires a mass balance of biogenic carbon stocks in (1) the forest, specifically attributable to the forest products industry, and (2) forest products. This study finds that in both 2007 and 2022, the quantities of biogenic carbon stored in products were increasing at the equivalent of about 600 million metric tons CO2e per year. These gains in stocks, however, cannot be netted against other GHG emissions without completing the biogenic carbon mass balance, which requires an understanding of the change in forest carbon stocks attributable to the global forest products industry, and at present, this understanding is lacking. If one assumes that annual forest growth is adequate to offset annual losses of forest carbon (i.e., stable forest carbon stocks) on land providing wood to the industry, the net removals of carbon from the atmosphere associated with the growth in carbon stocks is adequate to offset all Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (GHG Protocol 2004) in the value chain.
Keywords
carbon footprint, value chain, Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3, greenhouse gas emissions, GHG
Mot-clés
chaîne de valeur, émissions de gaz à effet de serre, empreinte carbone, GES, portée 1, portée 2, portée 3
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