• Trees remove carbon from the air. The use of wood products creates unique advantages in addressing climate change.

• Carbon is locked up in the wood products we produce.

• Wood is used to generate clean energy in biomass and cogeneration facilities.

• Using wood and woody-biomass reduces the need to burn fossil fuels which in turn reduces the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.

• Open burning produces as much as 100 times more conventional pollutants than controlled combustion in a power boiler. Biomass energy production is carbon neutral.

• Over half of energy produced in the pulp and paper industry today, is generated from wood residuals like bark, spent liquors, fines, etc.

• Harvesting of trees and promoting forest regeneration increases the absorption and storage of atmospheric C02.

• Healthy forests are less susceptible to catastrophic wildfires that release alarming amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the air, kill wildlife and destroy their habitat and watersheds.

• Every substitute for wood products requires large inputs of fossil fuels to create the product (up to 300% more than wood) leading to increases in Green House Gases (GHG) emissions.

• Carbon sequestration is 75 tons/acre higher for an actively managed forest versus no management (let-grow).

• Trees are the most powerful concentrators of carbon on earth.

• Since 1972, the industry has reduced its fossil fuel and purchased energy consumption by nearly 50 percent. The industry's average total energy use per ton of pulp and paper has decreased by nearly 25 percent since 1972.

• On average, one ton of paper contains some 1.33 tons of carbon equivalents CO2.

• Modern forestry will be a key and integral component of any strategy to reduce US carbon emissions.

• Facilities within the Forest Products industry that have already achieved substantial emission reductions should be recognized for those improvements, and not be placed at a competitive disadvantage, to developing countries who do not meet our environmental standards.

• We have the ability to manage forests to further reduce the amount of carbon in our air. We must find economic and regulatory incentives to make it happen.

• Combustion of biomass fuels (including spent liquor, wood waste, and bark) are carbon neutral and should not be counted as direct emissions.

• Carbon stored in forests and in manufactured forest products reduces atmospheric CO2 concentrations and should be recognized as sequestered carbon.

• Recovery and recycling of forest products reduces landfill greenhouse gas emissions by keeping such material out of landfills and should be recognized as avoiding emissions.

• Establish appropriate incentives and support for technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• The most-economically sustainable and environmentally responsible course of action is to manage forests for long-term productivity and sustainability.

• One of the best ways to address climate change is to use more wood, not less.

• In order to offset CO2 released by burning fossil fuels, materials from the forest that aren't appropriate for wood products should be used to produce clean, biomass energy.

• Promote forest management plans that reduce catastrophic wildfires, which release massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

• Replant areas destroyed by wildfires so they quickly begin removing carbon from the air.

• The forest and paper industry strongly believes that any potential climate change policies for the sector should be based on the carbon cycle approach (Life Cycle of a Tree).

Revised 12/04/08

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