The increased industrial use of raw wood in Finland has undermined the key role of forests in making the country carbon neutral by 2035, the Finnish Institute for Natural Resources (LUKE) said on Monday.
Instead of being a carbon sink, the forests will be a source of emissions in 2035, it said.
The increased consumption covers two-thirds of the increase in emissions; the rest comes from the drainage of marshland forests.
The Institute noted that to attain the national goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, emissions from other sources, such as traffic and agriculture, should be correspondingly smaller.
The use of domestic raw wood has increased due to the cessation of wood imports from Russia and the expansion of pulp production. Until 2021, imports from Russia covered ten percent of Finnish industrial raw wood needs.
LUKE is a government agency under the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry.
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