Canada's forestry industry has sharply reduced its greenhouse gas emissions over the last 15 years, largely by employing new technologies, according to the Forest Products Association of Canada.
"The forest products industry, more than any other industry in Canada, has a unique perspective on climate change mainly because forests and the products derived from them literally embody carbon," Avrim Lazar, the association's CEO, said Wednesday in a release.
Investment in new technology that increases efficiency and enhances productivity and competitiveness has made the industry a leader in addressing greenhouse gas emissions, the association said.
The pulp and paper sector reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 per cent while increasing production by more than 30 per cent, in part by fuelling operations with "carbon-neutral" biomass, the association said.
"Our perspective is also profoundly shaped by the fact that the future of our industry and the prosperity it generates is almost entirely dependent on the continued well being of our ecosystem," Mr. Lazar said.
"No other industry has been so deeply affected by climate change or has done as much to combat it."
The association said the pulp and paper sector now meets 57 per cent of its energy demands with biomass, derived from industrial byproducts such as bark, wood shavings and sawdust.
"The sector is now the largest industrial source of cogeneration or combined heat and power capacity in Canada, which is largely powered by carbon-neutral renewable biomass," it said.
"As part of our renewal effort, we are investing over $3 billion a year in facility upgrades as well as hundreds of million more in R&D to strengthen both our competitiveness and environmental performance going forward," Mr. Lazar added.
Emission reductions in the solid wood sector, as well as in forestry and logging, have also helped "by realizing the potential of forests and sustainable forest management practices to remove carbon from the atmosphere and serve as natural 'carbon sinks,'" the association said.Canada East
