Developing long-life wood uses to improve carbon storage: where are we in Europe? Key takeaways

Improved forest management (IFM) can help mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration in forests and wood products while ensuring the highest possible sustainable level of forest carbon stocks, taking into account natural disturbances. In Europe, these practices could be encouraged, especially to counterbalance the decline in forest sinks in some countries. There is an opportunity to incentivize these practices under the European Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) regulation. Forest features and improved forest management strategies need to be properly integrated within this new scheme. This is where INFORMA comes in! 

A few days after the conclusion of negotiations on the European Union’s carbon removals certification Framework (CRCF), I4CE helped organise the European Carbon Farming Summit in Valencia, as part of the CREDIBLE project. The high level of stakeholder participation at the summit testifies to the expectations that this new tool will contribute to a better economic valuation of carbon farming practices. The summit raised high hopes for improving and harmonising carbon measurement to certify projects, in particular through remote sensing, in a sector where there is a great deal of uncertainty. While it is vital to improve measurement and monitoring, uncertainty must not be allowed to justify inaction, and the key is to find the right balance between cost and accuracy.

Year after year, France becomes aware of the drastic deterioration in the carbon sink of its forests. Tree mortality increases sharply with droughts and health crises. Yet France needs this carbon sink to achieve its climate objectives and needs to preserve it by improving the resilience of its forests, but also – and this is less obvious – by making the best possible use of the harvested wood from the forests. France’s climate strategy is counting heavily on maximising the carbon sink in wood products, i.e. making greater use of the wood harvested to manufacture long-lasting products, particularly in the construction industry. Some products store carbon over the long term, and are not only those that we imagine at first glance, as we showed in a previous study.