Timber cities would lock up a great deal of carbon. Even more to the point: although it requires energy to turn a tree trunk into a finished beam ... it takes roughly 12 times as much to make a steel girder that is functionally equivalent.

– Colin Tudge, The Secret Life of Trees.

The standout recommendation in the Oireachtas committee report on climate change is to increase carbon tax “to at least €80/t by 2030” compared with the current rate of €20/t.

Countries such as Austria and Denmark place strong emphasis on decarbonising energy provisions by stressing the role of renewables in the bioeconomy.

“The largest potential is seen as wood,” maintains the Austrian 2018 update “Bioenergy policies and status of implementation”. It is one of the reasons why Austria aims to achieve a 34.2% target for renewables next year compared with Ireland’s failure to even achieve its modest 16% target. Denmark, which has a similar target as Austria, hasn’t increased its carbon tax since 2002.

Wood and wood products receive no more than a cursory reference in the Oireachtas committee report, which is a major disappointment in an otherwise ambitious document.

Chair Hildegarde Naughton deserves credit for producing a report which she says “marks the beginning of a new era for climate policy in Ireland”.

However, the combined role of forests and wood from forests in sustainable construction, wood energy and other applications in climate change mitigation is absent.

As a result, the connection between carbon sequestration in the forests and carbon storage in wood products is missed, as is the role of wood as a renewable energy resource.

The report makes no reference to the benefits of commercial conifer – softwood – forestry in this regard.

The use of softwood in construction has major environmental advantages in energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction, which is acknowledged throughout Europe, but not here.

This is the main difference between the role played by wood in the bioeconomy in Ireland and other developed countries with ambitious programmes for wood usage and design. For example, Canada, Norway, Germany and Austria now view softwoods as a major medium in large-scale construction.

Innovative architects, engineers and designers regard wood as a contemporary medium and are now using engineered wood from softwood species such as Norway spruce and Douglas fir as the main building material.

Rüdiger Lainer and Partner (RLP) is building the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper in the Seestadt Aspern area of Vienna.

This 84m, 24-storey twin-tower project comprises 76% wood and according to RLP “will save a phenomenal 2,800t of CO2 emissions over similar structures built out of steel and concrete”.

The building under construction. Preliminary research carried out by NUI Galway shows that engineered Sitka spruce cross-laminated timber (CLT) could offer similar benefits in multi-storey construction in Ireland. \ RLP

Preliminary research carried out by NUI Galway shows that engineered Sitka spruce cross-laminated timber (CLT) could offer similar benefits in multi-storey construction in Ireland. It is probably unfair to blame Deputy Naughton and her committee for missing this ambitious role for homegrown softwood as the various organisations that made submissions to the committee failed to bring this and other aspects of forestry to their attention.

As a result, the report acknowledges that it “was not in a position to examine afforestation in any level of adequate detail”, and it shows. However, it goes on to make a number of statements that either disregard or underplay the role of forestry in the bioeconomy and current forestry practices in achieving a multipurpose forestry programme in Ireland.

Advice

For example, the committee claims that broadleaf forests have a “greater carbon storage and sequestration role” without any recourse to scientific data to back up this assertion.

In this regard, committee members might have heeded the advice of Lord Deben, chair of the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC), when they invited him to make a presentation last December.

He stressed the need for independence and to establish “ a reputation for being accurate and scientifically based and not be a campaigning group”. He outlined that in a number of instances such as flood control, the best species are conifers.

The CCC relies on scientific data from organisations such as Confor – the independent UK body representing the sustainable forestry and wood industry.

No similar body exists in Ireland, even though the forestry sector has been calling for an independent forestry development agency for over a decade.

The report recommends that the proposed Climate Action Council should conduct a comprehensive review of national forestry in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation, to include:

  • Climate mitigation potential of the various approaches to forest management.
  • Mitigation and adaptation potential of increasing the proportion of native and broadleaf species.
  • Assessing the potential of introducing requirements to convert Sitka spruce plantations into more mixed stands and the associated climate and ecological benefits of this.
  • Assessing the wider environmental co-benefits of various forest management approaches including biodiversity, water quality and flood management.
  • Employment opportunities/financial supports.
  • Potential for recreational co-benefits.
  • Community acceptance and resistance.
  • However, it needs a far more rounded approach to the development of the forestry and forest products sector to maximise its role in climate change.

    The new Climate Action Council might take a leaf out of the Confor CEO Stuart Goodall’s book when analysing the forestry sector.

    He says: “As well as trees soaking up carbon, they can mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing flood risks and stabilising soils. Later, the timber harvested can be made into everyday products which store carbon.”

    The committee also missed the advantages of Ireland’s vibrant forest products sector. This ensures that there is no waste in wood throughout the growing and manufacturing cycle.

    Wood allows architects, engineers, designers and woodworkers to build and design, safe in the knowledge that what they take will be replaced, given the renewable nature of wood.

    Wood is a remarkable renewable material, regardless of species, which the Climate Action Council needs to acknowledge.

    It grows in abundance in a wide range of soils, sites and climatic conditions and we are fortunate in Ireland to have the ideal growing conditions to produce high-yielding forests and woodlands.

    We are also fortunate to have the capability of increasing forest cover from 11% at present to 18% without any loss in agricultural production.

    We have the capability of maximising this resource if we plant the right trees in the right places.

    The current ratio of 30% broadleaves and 70% conifers, including Sitka spruce, is achieving a balanced, environmental, social and economic forestry programme.