Climate change is considered to be among the most serious threats to the sustainability of the world?s environment, the health and well being of its people and the global economy. The rising levels of greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere are expected to cause a rise in global temperatures. In Kyoto, December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was written under which industrialised countries have adopted legally binding emission levels at 5.2% below 1990 levels on average. Under this protocol the European Union has agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 8% during the period 2008-2012. In practice, this translates into an estimated reduction of 14% compared to the European Commission forecasts, taking into account the projected growth of emissions,
The Kyoto Protocol outlines three market-based mechanisms that enable countries to meet their GHG commitments at the lowest possible overall cost:
- International Emissions Trading (IEI)
- Joint Implementation ØI)
- Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
These three mechanisms do not by themselves reduce the emissions but they can help the countries to achieve the stated targets at a lower cost.
If each member state within the European Union were to implement its specific target individually, the total annual cost for the EU to reach the Kyoto target could teach some 9.0 billion Euro, With the full use of the mechanism among energy suppliers and energy intensive industries would most likely save the EU almost 2 billion Euro per annum in 2010.
In the Kyoto Protocol the forest sink is only accounted as the result from direct human induced land-use change and forest activities limited to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation (ARD) since 1990. Harvesting the wood avoids forests getting old and this is of substantial benefit because a young forest has a higher net annual increment and therefore a higher annual C-uptake than an old one. The forest and forest products industry is not only contributing by harvesting the forest, it is also a well-integrated part of the carbon cycle and actively prevent carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere by binding the carbon in its products. Once paper products are consumed, they start a new life when separately collected as a secondary raw material or bio fuel. This endless process means that the forest becomes a renewable source of raw material and that the cycle is closed and balanced.
The effect of new investments is through a calculation model studied at two of SCA?s mills, Mannheim in Germany and Munksund in Sweden. The calculations show that the investment made in the Mannheim mil will have a net outcome on the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent to a decrease of 32 ktonne. In Munksund the carbon in the feedstock (wood) will either end up as carbon in the paperboard products or as CO2 from combustion in the recovery boiler and the bark boiler, biogenic CO2. In total there will be a 124 ktonne reduction (increased uptake) of carbon dioxide as a result of the reconstruction. It is also worth noticing that the production of green electricity will more than triple due to the change in electricity balance.
By applying the Munksund case to other countries in Europe the outcome will be vary due to the different CO2 content in the national grid electricity. This will give an effect meaning that if the mill was placed in Denmark instead of Sweden, and the external conditions were the same, the emission reduction would be three times bigger with the same investment.
With national quotas on green electricity the trading of green certificates between countries would most likely lead to great opportunities for the pulp and paper companies that produce green electricity. This will be a step in the right direction towards the goal of reducing the emissions of GHG at the lowest possible cost.
The impact of the national energy politic could prove to have a large influence on the possibility of the country, or ...
