The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) published preliminary results of the greenhouse gas inventory for 2023, revealing that Finnish forests turned from carbon sinks into sources of greenhouse gas emissions, releasing 1.12 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to Ilta-Sanomat. The shift sparked intense debate in Finland, as the country's longstanding belief that its forests reduce the emission burden is now challenged.
The turning point occurred in 2021, marking the first time Finnish forests were a cause of climate emissions, researchers noted, as reported by Turun Sanomat.
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation emphasized the necessity to reduce Finland's forest harvests from the current over 70 million cubic meters to at most 55-60 million cubic meters per year, according to Maaseudun Tulevaisuus. Antti Heikkinen, the Environmental Manager of the association, stated that forests are key to achieving climate goals and that drastic measures are now the only alternative.
The Finnish Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Kai Mykkänen, described carbon sinks as the Achilles' heel of Finland's climate policy. He emphasized that reducing logging is the only way to increase carbon sinks to the required level, as reported by Helsingin Sanomat. Mykkänen noted that by developing forest management guidelines, it is possible to influence the rotation period, affecting how much wood is harvested.
According to Luke, the decrease in forest growth and increased logging by the forest industry were among the reasons for the net emissions. The cessation of wood imports from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine led Finnish forest companies to replace imported wood with domestic sources, resulting in increased demand for domestic timber, according to Yle. Before the Ukraine war, about ten million cubic meters of wood were imported from Russia, accounting for about ten percent of the Finnish forest industry's wood consumption.
The shift in Finnish forests threatens to undermine the country's climate targets for 2035, as it relies on the assumption that emissions and the carbon sink will be equal by that year, according to Yle. The Climate Act sets Finland's goal to be carbon neutral by 2035, but the shrinking carbon sink makes it difficult to reach this goal, as reported by Helsingin Sanomat.
Environmentalists are calling for immediate action. "Although the forests turning into a source of emissions is news, the information certainly does not come as a surprise to anyone," said Maria Ohisalo, a Member of the European Parliament from the Green League, in a press release. "At worst, Finland will in the future pay billion-euro bills in sanctions due to excessive logging, while the forest industry laughs all the way to the bank," warned Ohisalo.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq