Role of the Finnish forest industry in mitigating global change: energy use and greenhouse gas emissions towards 2035

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse role of forest industry in meeting energy and climate targets that aim to mitigating global change. Finland as an important forest industry country with the ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral by 2035 is selected to a target county. This study aims to present a plausible assessment of the future of the Finnish forest industry until 2035 based on literature and a scenario building approach. The focus is on energy use and fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The results suggest that electricity consumption will decrease, whereas electricity production will increase, which indicates that forest industry can provide more renewable electricity to the grid. Heat consumption may even increase as a result from building new biorefineries, but those mills can most probably meet their heat demand by combusting biofuels. Changes in forest industry’s direct fossil CO2 emissions can reduce Finnish fossil CO2 emissions 2─4% in comparison to 2018. Biofuels production is likely to rise, but the extent remains to be seen. It is concluded that the Finnish forest industry can contribute significantly to meeting national climate policy targets, and forest industry in general can play a role in mitigating global change. Additionally, it was found that development of the Finnish forest industry will probably be limited by the requirement for sustainable wood harvesting, which may also be a problem for other forest industry countries.

Effect of biomass-based carbon capture on the sustainability and economics of pulp and paper production in the Nordic mills

“…The possible pathways for emission reduction as well as the reduction potential should interest both policymakers and industrial operators. Recent scenarios on the Finnish pulp and paper industry (Lipiäinen and Vakkilainen, 2021) show that nearly carbon-neutral production can be achieved by the year 2035. Totally carbon-neutral or carbon-negative production requires negative emissions, e.g., in the form of BECCS.…”

Expectations for Bioenergy Considering Carbon Neutrality Targets in the EU

“…Sweden and Finland are examples of countries where biomass usage for energy purposes is well established in the pulp and paper industry [49]. Analyzing the Finnish pulp and paper industry, Lipiäinen and Vakkilainen [50] suggest that nearly carbon-neutral production can be achieved by the year 2035. Totally carbon-neutral or carbon-negative production requires negative emissions, for example, in the form of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).…”

Decarbonizing the pulp and paper industry: A critical and systematic review of sociotechnical developments and policy options

“…The magnitude of energy use and climate impacts emerging from the PPI. Source, authors compiled from [1,14,35,39,47,74,77,[80][81][82]122,131,[147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166]:…”

“…In Sweden, for instance, deploying BECCS is perceived as a cost-efficient way to mitigate emissions from the PPI due to biomass' abundance, the large forestry industry and huge biogenic emissions [135,240]. While in Finland, the implementation of BECCS could deliver carbon neutrality for the same reasons [151]. Regardless of BECCS' potential, research indicates that successful PPI deployment will depend on energy markets [117] and the impacts of the European emissions trading system [241].…”