Stuart Goodall: Seeing the wood for the trees to reduce carbon emissions

AS WE enter a new "age of austerity" and economists and political commentators vie with each other to predict the scale of upcoming cuts in public services and rises in taxation, there is a real danger that climate change commitments could be overlooked.

Scotland has world-leading emissions reduction targets – 42 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050 against 1990 levels. Reaching the 2020 goal will require further reductions totalling about 16 million tonnes of a year or the equivalent of stopping all transport, including aviation.

With a lengthy recession, and stuttering recovery, emissions have been artificially reduced in recent years. There is a real danger this could provide a false impression of progress against targets. If we factor in upcoming austerity measures and downward trends in forestry planting, emissions targets look very challenging indeed.

Outside a few sectors such as forestry and wood processing, increased carbon emissions come with economic growth. Indeed Scotland's forestry and wood-using businesses are almost alone in reducing carbon emissions the more they produce.

A report last year for the Sustainable Development Commission said modernising production and redesigning goods and services have led to greater resource efficiency. However, it is still very difficult to separate environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, from the economy.

Looking at the global picture, the report noted that even with moderate economic growth of 2 per cent per year, meeting 2050 carbon reduction targets would mean each dollar spent in the world should produce a carbon output of no more than 6g . That's 30 times lower than the average carbon intensity of a dollar spent today.

Against this background, senior civil servants, business people from energy and construction, environmental NGOs and farming representatives will meet in Dunblane today to discuss how they can work together so that Scotland's forests can best contribute to a low carbon economy.

Growing trees sucks up carbon and sustainably produced wood can replace less-carbon-friendly construction materials and fossil fuels. Through sequestration and substitution, our forests could contribute up to a third of Scotland's climate change target by 2050.

This is an extraordinary figure. However, we will need to act quickly to achieve that as every year delayed is a year lost. Current levels of tree planting need to increase rapidly and we need to ensure that sustainably produced Scottish wood goes to markets that provide high carbon and jobs benefits, such as building houses and schools and, as appropriate, woodfuel for heating.

Scotland needs to separate growth from carbon emissions, and this low-carbon economy requires vibrant forestry and wood-using businesses – a sector that already employs 20,000 people directly and contributes nearly 1 billion a year to the economy.

Delivering further growth and carbon reduction will require politicians and civil servants to work with the sector to ensure that public policy across land-use, energy and construction is joined up. And forestry and wood-using businesses need to work positively with farmers and the energy and construction sectors to ensure that a valuable Scottish resource can be integrated effectively with these sectors own objectives.

• Stuart Goodall is chief executive of the Confederation of Forest Industries.