Ross Hampton
Increasing sustainable forestry and timber industries is key to achieving the global ‘Carbon Neutral by 2050’ goal, according to the new chairman of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Advisory Committee on Sustainable Forest-based Industries. Source: Timberbiz
“The world is increasingly turning to renewable resources such as timber and fibre-based packaging to meet both sustainability and climate goals,” the new chairman and AFPA CEO Ross Hampton said.
“This trend must be turbo charged if we are to meet the ambition of carbon neutrality by 2050.
“The carbon stored in forests is also stored in the products produced from those forests. Done to certified world best practice in which re-planting or regeneration follows harvest, forestry and forest industries are a continuous production line for the climate friendly, sustainable products which we all need,” he said.
“Timber is far less energy-intensive to produce than steel and concrete, making it the ‘green’ choice for construction. But despite some outstanding breakthroughs in innovative engineered timber products, the shift to medium and high-rise timber buildings has been too slow. If we are to make a meaningful impact on climate, every major city authority with a climate action plan should be demanding developers use more timber.”
Mr Hampton said that forest products also played a huge role providing biodegradable alternatives to single use plastics which are choking our waterways and oceans.
“This transition also must accelerate. Bioenergy and biomaterials are also an area which has far greater potential to be a force for good,” he said.
