Policy|HS Environment
According to Luke’s research manager Juha Mikola, the carbon sink of the land use sector in the next five years can be well predicted if the amount of felling is known.
Natural Resources Center (Luke) the researcher does not share the environment and climate minister Kai Mykkänen (cook) vision that predicting the carbon sinks of forests and soil would be impossible.
Mute told HS on Sunday that they consider the industrial capture of carbon dioxide to be a more reliable emission measure than the strengthening of carbon sinks in the land use sector. The land use sector means agriculture and forestry and other land use.
“Predicting forests and soil has proven to be an impossible task,” Mykkänen said.
I’m reading research manager Juha Mikolan according to the land use sector, the carbon sink clearly reacts to the cutting level of forests.
“For example, the sink for the next five years can be predicted quite well if the amount of logging is known,” says Mikola.
Mikola raises, for example, the development between 2021 and 2022. In 2021, the land use sector turned into a source of emissions, but in 2022 it returned to being a small sink.
“The change is entirely due to the fact that felling volumes fell,” he states.
With his statement Mykkänen seemed to be referring to Luke to the calculations, which sparked a political debate in the early spring. According to calculations, in 2021 Finland’s land use sector changed from a carbon sink to a source of emissions for the first time.
The reason behind the collapse of the coal sinks was heavy cutting of forests and slower than expected growth.
Read more: The researchers were surprised by Petteri Orpo’s criticism of science: “He hasn’t had time or wanted to learn”
Mikolan According to
However, he does not consider the development of technology to be a surer way than strengthening the sinks in the land use sector.
According to Mykkänen, the most important climate action in the government program is “plugging factory chimneys“. In addition, the government wants, among other things, more hydrogen investments in Finland.
Means of strengthening sinks, on the other hand, include, in addition to limiting forest felling, measures aimed at, for example, peat fields, such as reducing clearing and draining, i.e. raising the groundwater level. They are quick ways to tackle emissions, Mikola estimates.
“The technology side has a certain long-term potential, and its development and implementation is perhaps politically an easier decision than limiting logging.”
Mute already expressed the view in an interview with HS on Saturday that it is not essential to reach the EU’s emission reduction targets in the land use sector by 2025.
If Finland does not reach the EU emission targets for the land use sector, it may have to buy sink units from other EU countries for up to billions of euros. According to Mykkänen, the government is not about to give up, but the carbon sequestration measures will not be enough to achieve the goals.
Mikola says that Mykkänen is probably right that it is not possible to achieve the emission targets by 2025.
“It would require such large actions that they would be politically impossible. But maybe in this situation, we could encourage that we do what is possible in terms of sinks, that we fall short of that goal as much as possible.”
Mute said on Sunday that the collapse of coal sinks at the end of the last government term also came as a surprise to the then government. Mikola does not fully believe this claim.
“It couldn’t have come as a complete surprise, because the leveling off of tree growth and the increase in felling levels have been clear trends that have been visible. Researchers have been talking for many years that the logging level is rising so high that the sink in the land use sector may disappear,” he says.
#Environment #Mykkänen #predicting #carbon #sink #forests #impossible #researcher
