The world – and the climate – needs Swedish wood

Ursula von der Leyen was reelected President of the European Commission in July. In her acceptance speech, she reiterated the need for the EU to stay on its
course towards climate neutrality, while also stressing the need to make life simpler for businesses. It is positive to see the President combining a strong focus on environmental and climate goals with intensified efforts to boost the competitiveness of the EU and its industries.

Sweden’s climate goal is to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Many of our readers will be aware that the construction and real estate sector accounts for about a fifth of Sweden’s greenhouse gas emissions which, according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary statistics, totalled 44.2 million tonnes in 2023.

Emissions are falling, but we still have a lot of work to do and little more than 20 years to do it. And at the same time, a growing global population needs both food and safe housing.

But while the challenges are many, there is no shortage of solutions. The fastest way to reduce emissions from our sector is to increase building in wood. But this requires a policy that does not restrict access to raw material, and the key to that is how we in Sweden choose to implement the EU’s new Nature Restoration Law, which came into force in August. The aims of the law are sound and important – to restore certain habitats, increase biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change and natural disasters.

But the challenge for Sweden is that the member states themselves set appropriate reference areas for these habitats. Many are opting to start from the situation in the 1990s, when international regulations linked to nature conservation were adopted. But Sweden is not. Instead, we have chosen to take the situation pre-industrialisation. This could mean taking over a million hectares more forest (just over 4%) out of production, compared with if we had chosen
1995, for example, as the reference year. This risks seriously worsening the already strained supply of raw material for the forest industry at the very time when Sweden, the world and the climate most need access to wood from sustainably managed forests – wood that is fossil-free and renewable. The Swedish government has the chance to choose a more balanced way forward in the implementation of the law.

Here at Swedish Wood, we are looking forward to our autumn seminar on engineered wood construction. We will be talking all about the issues surrounding the theme of wood construction and its role in the green transition.