The EU Climate Neutrality Goals & Sweden’s Role in Reaching Them

The European Green Deal and the European Climate Law in the European Union have set a target to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The EU is working on the ‘Fit for 55 package,’ which focuses on a revised version of its energy, transport, and climate-related legislation to align the current laws with its 2030 & 2050 goals. The Fit for 55 package aims to provide a balanced yet coherent framework to reach the climate objectives set by the EU, thereby doing the following:

1. Ensuring a socially fair & just transition to a climate-neutral environment
2. Maintaining & strengthening the competitiveness and innovation of the EU industry by providing a level playing field for third-country economic operators
3. Underpinning the European Union’s position as a leader in the global fight against climate change

Forest-based products & energy are crucial elements to reaching climate neutrality in the European Union. The Parliament has proposed a 2030 LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change & Forestry) target in line with the EC proposal that would require a carbon sink of 310 Mt CO2e in the European Union (an approximate 15% increase in removals, as compared to today). The EC expects Sweden to increase its carbon sink and become the EU’s largest carbon sink, increasing it to 47 million tons of CO2e every year by the end of 2030.?

In practice, this means that forest harvests have to decrease whereas raw materials which are renewable will end up becoming scarce & expensive, making fossil alternatives more attractive. An interesting point to note here is that energy and products from the forest are the keys to mitigating climate change and hence have to be readily available. In addition to this, a call from ENVI mentioning an additional 50 million tons for sequestering through carbon farming was voted down.?

The Swedish Forest Industries, as per the situation & expectations, believes in the following:

1. Reducing fossil emissions when renewable raw materials aren’t available as much will become impossible.
2. The Swedish forests should not have to compensate for the increased fossil emissions in other sectors & countries.
3. The forests have to be actively managed for carbon-sequestering that is to be further stored in wood products to substitute fossil resources ultimately.

To ensure that the goals are met, the Swedish Forest Industries have suggested a few amendments to the proposal, such as:

1. Focusing on increased growth in forests & target an increased substitution of fossil materials to get a long-term sustainable climate policy.
2. To make carbon sinks more realistic & comparable, the assessment of target fulfillment should be harmonized, and the targets for 2030 should be indicative.
3. Ensuring that burden-sharing reflects the potential to increase carbon sinks.
4. Aligning the Land Use, Land Use Change & Forestry (LULUCF) with the European Climate Law.
5. Maintaining the pressure on reducing all emissions from the agriculture industry by refraining from the merger of emissions from agriculture and forestry from 2031.

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