world news - 28.07.2009
Timber body challenged on climate claims
An Australian timber industry body is being investigated over claims
it misled the public by asserting that buying wood products helped the
fight against climate change. The consumer watchdog has asked
Forest & Wood Products Australia to respond to allegations it made
two deceptive claims: that the CO2 stored in trees is locked
up when they are logged and converted into wood products, and that
forestry is one of Australia's most greenhouse-friendly industries. The
"Wood. Naturally Better" advertisement campaign was based on variations
on the slogan "It's more than attractive furniture. It's a helping hand
in climate change." It prompted a complaint to the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission by the Wilderness Society. Forest
campaigner Luke Chamberlain said the advertisements were "clear green
washing", and failed to reflect that logging old-growth forest resulted
in larger greenhouse gas emissions than plantation harvesting. "Eighty-five
per cent of what comes out when native forests are logged ends up as
woodchips, waste and sawdust and most of the carbon is lost during the
forest burn and the creation of woodchips," he said. He said suggestions that forestry was a carbon-positive industry were "unsubstantiated and debatable". Forest
& Wood Products Australia managing director Ric Sinclair said the
complaint was baseless, citing a federal government report in 2005 that
found forestry was Australia's only carbon-positive industry. He
said the advertisements made no claims about emissions from forest
waste. They aimed to improve the public's poor understanding of the
role timber products could play in storing carbon. Last week the
organisation published its own research that found timber in Australian
houses stored about 100 million tonnes of carbon, adding about 2
million tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year as new houses are built. "It is a statement of fact that wood products store carbon — half the dry weight of wood is carbon," said Mr Sinclair.
See also:
- — Forest owners make profits on energy wood
- — Wood trade in Finland continues at a record slow pace
- — Russian Timber Backlog at Finnish Border
- — Amazon deforestation at lowest level
- — Wood costs for pulpmills in Sweden and Finland have fallen over 30 % the past year
