Harvested wood products carbon assessment using ToSIA methodology
In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted. The Kyoto Protocol 1997 encouraged UNFCCC Parties to monitor and report carbon stock changes in forests. Carbon stored in harvested wood products (HWPs) was regarded as oxidised at the time of harvest. Carbon accounting was based on the perception that HWPs stocks are not changing. In fact HWPs are an important store of carbon. Discussions’ regarding carbon accounting in HWPs and regarding CO2 emissions from those products have been launched at political and scientific levels. IPCC guidelines for greenhouse gas inventories were prepared. Recently carbon accounting in HWPs is understood as an important component of carbon mitigation strategies and the decision has been made to include them in new climate agreements. In the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (Durban 2011) decision to account carbon in HWPs has been taken.
These studies will concentrate on carbon accounting in HWPs in Europe. The results of these studies will be used to develop ToSIA as a carbon accounting tool.
