A group of forest scientists and timber company representatives have come together to challenge the Federal Government on the form of its proposed carbon tax.
According to a report in The Age, the group submitted a letter to the Climate Commission complaining of the lack of recognition of the carbon sequestered in wood products from sustainably managed sources, particularly if this wood is used over metal, concrete and plastic alternatives.
Signatories included academics such as the Professor Emeritus of Forest Science at the University of Melbourne, Ian Ferguson; former executives from CSIRO forestry products; and senior figures from HVP Plantations, Norske Skog, Carter Holt Harvey and Auswest Timbers.
The letter from the collation of scientists and timber industry notes: “the 2009 Garnaut climate change review argued for the inclusion of carbon stored in wood products.”
It cites the views of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: ''A sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustainable yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.''
The coalition supported the role of afforestation in the policy, such as reforestation for timber, biodiversity, biofuels, water quantity and quality, and landscape protection.
But they rejected as flawed the argument to stop timber harvesting from native forests for carbon emission mitigation.
In response, a spokesperson for The Carbon Farming Initiative said: ''Over time, carbon pricing will increase the value of wood products … as ... Products that compete with timber, such as cement, steel and fossil fuels, will be covered by the carbon price.''
