Today the European Commission presented the proposal for a regulation on how to include Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) into the EU 2030 Climate and Energy framework.

The Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) welcomes the recognition in the proposal of afforestation as an important measure to mitigate climate change, but wish to see more ambition when it comes to the role of sustainable forest management and use of wood products, which in the long term creates the largest sustained climate mitigation and adaptation from forests.

“Establishing new forests is a cost-efficient climate mitigation action, which also comes with a number of other benefits, for example creating habitats and providing a renewable raw material for the growing bioeconomy. However, in the EU there is a limited potential for how much land can be afforested”, says CEPF Secretary General Emma Berglund.

Berglund continues: “Forests already cover 40% of EU’s land and the sustainable management of these existing forests holds a great climate mitigation potential by maintaining or even increasing the forest carbon stocks and sequestration of CO₂. Carbon can then be stored in wood-based products and substitute fossil fuels, promoting the shift to a fossil free society. And, at the same time, through active management, forest resilience to climate change and disturbances can be enhanced”.

For further information, please see the CEPF position paper on LULUCF.

Alongside the LULUCF proposal, the Commission presented a proposal on binding greenhouse gas emissions reductions for Member States in the so called Effort Sharing Decision (ESD). Furthermore, a European strategy for low-emission mobility was announced.