Thank you Frances, and thank you for inviting me here today. British billionaire Richard Branson has offered 25 million US dollars to the entrepreneur who finds a way to remove a billion tons of carbon a year from the atmosphere. To be awarded the prize:
"The winner of the contest must devise a plan to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere without creating adverse effects. The first $5 million would be paid upfront, and the remainder of the money would be paid only after the program had worked successfully for 10 years."
Well Mr. Branson, we have a way. It's an amazing technology. A technology for large-scale carbon capture and storage. It's a real solution that already delivers ambitious mitigation.
This technology does not have adverse environmental effect, can be scaled up, and is available throughout the world without complex technology transfer. It is proven and simple. It involves ultraviolet, visible radiation and molecular reaction.
Chemists know it as:
The rest of us know it as:
For our industry, photosynthesis is the core of everything we do, our "manufacturing process."
Photosynthesis is the ultimate green power.
Through photosynthesis and the use of trees, we can create a response to climate change that is achievable and sustainable. The numbers tell the story.
For each ton of wood produced by a tree, 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere. But that's just the beginning.
When you make something from a tree, carbon sequestered in forests and the products themselves largely offset carbon produced by the manufacturing process.
Each year, over 100 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide are stored in long-lived wood products. We believe that photosynthesis and sustainable forest management can achieve the billion tons of annual carbon removal that Richard Branson seeks.
We agree with the IPCC writing in the Fourth Assessment Report:
"In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit."
Our trees and our products can play an important role in global carbon efficiency.
So what is standing in our way?
First, we must overcome the fear of cutting down a tree. I am not talking about deforestation. I speak to the proliferation of bumper stickers calling to "save a tree." They make no distinction between the harvest of a tree to be used in wood products, and illegal or irresponsible logging.
The best way to preserve the acres of forests that are not in conservation is to enhance the economic value of forest products. Follow the money. Landowners will replant when the value is there.
Next, we have spent much of the last decade squabbling over which sustainable forest certification system is best. Unfortunately, these battles do little to address the real issue.
Today, 90 percent of the world's forests are not certified to any system. A few are protected by conservation programs. The majority are vulnerable. It is time to turn our energies towards bringing all the world's working forests up to sustainable standards. That is the only way to ensure the continued production of trees, wildlife habitat, water storage and filtration and biodiversity. Sustainable societies need these services. They need not be separately monetized. They are the free product of a healthy forest system. Any international protocol regarding forestland management must recognize and include incentives for multiple certification systems.
What other barriers exist?
Our industry releases the potential in trees by converting wood and fiber into products that meet human needs such as shelter, clothing, sanitary products, communications and energy. And because of the economic value of these goods, we replant for a future harvest. But the climate, social, and economic benefits of a managed forest will only occur if government policies allow the marketplace to work.
New policy that leads us into a carbon-constrained economy must maintain the trial and error method of a free economy.
Our industry is opportunistic. We adapt to the market pulls and pushes like every other industry. Business as usual in the real global marketplace means uncertainty, unpredictability and change. Policy should focus on results: are carbon emissions declining and is more carbon being sequestered?
When incentives for taking investment risk and wealth creation are rooted in what is good for the earth, who is the loser?
An international framework for carbon trading should provide economic credit for sustainable forest management. Equally important, that framework must ensure that credit is freely tradable through the value chain for products that store carbon.
Illegal logging is not managed forestry.
Unsustainable harvesting for heating and cooking is not managed forestry.
Deforestation, without replanting, is not managed forestry.
Climate change policies that promote sustainable forest management and add value to sustainable forest products produce jobs and benefit all landscapes.
A vibrant managed forest benefits all people.
For detailed information on the carbon characteristics of a forest, go to http://www.ncasi.org/publications/detail.aspx?id=3020.
If Mr. Branson visits this website, he will award our industry the $25 million prize!
Thank you.
Related information:
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/environment/reducingpollution/globalclimatechange.asp
