Logging’s climate threat: Emissions now rival transportation

With record wildfires ravaging much of Canada again this summer, the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grows. 

Oil companies have been rightly called out for their significant contribution to GHG emissions and the increased likelihood of fires. 

But another sector, which to date has been mischaracterized by government and industry as carbon-neutral, is also playing a major role in driving the climate crisis.

A new report, 2024 Logging Emissions Update, released last week by Nature Canada, Nature Quebec, and Natural Resources Defence Council, found that logging in Canada released 147 megatonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide in 2022 - one-fifth of Canada’s total reported emissions.

Logging was the third highest emitting economic sector in Canada, after oil and gas (217 Mt), and transport (156 Mt).

The report calculated annual logging emissions using government data, combining emissions from the forest- and harvested-wood products, minus the carbon stored in long-lived wood products and sequestered by trees planted after logging. (The methodology is fully outlined in a recent peer-reviewed article).

Due to a change in the underlying data as a result of the government’s recalculation of the historic area logged, logging emissions have doubled from previous calculations. 

The finding that logging is a high-emitting sector runs counter to longstanding claims by both industry and governments that logging in Canada is “sustainable” and a low-carbon climate solution. 

(In a notable break from past claims, after making adjustments to some of its underlying calculations, the government of Canada finally admitted that forest management activities emitted 25 Mt in 2022 — a far cry from the true figure).

Still, Energy and Natural Resources Canada’s recent State of Canada’s Forests report claims that “sustainable forest management helps to mitigate climate change.” 

Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan states that “sustainable forest management sequesters and stores significant amounts of atmospheric carbon through forest regeneration, growth and harvesting to produce long-lived wood products.”

And the logging industry has launched publicity campaigns arguing that we should log more forests to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent wildfires.

Claims of the carbon-neutrality of logging are based on the federal government’s biased approach to forest carbon accounting: not counting emissions from wildfires, but taking credit for carbon storage by natural regrowth of forests after wildfires, once they reach the age of commercial maturity. 

Concern about Canada’s approach to accounting for logging emissions has been raised by United Nations experts, scientists, MPs and senators, and Canada’s Office of the Auditor General.

The false portrayal as low carbon of logging–and wood-based products, such as pellets and mass timber buildings, threatens to undermine Canada’s achievement of its emission reduction targets. 

Further, by allowing the logging industry to pollute for free, Canada is missing the opportunity to encourage innovation in the forestry sector. This puts the sector at risk of losing access to global markets, like the European Union, which are increasingly demanding truly sustainable forestry products. 

It’s time for the logging industry — like all other sectors — to be held responsible for its emissions.

The federal government should conduct a full public review of concerns about underreporting of logging emissions, and start recognizing the true carbon footprint of logging.

Then, it should put in place a plan to reduce logging emissions — both to help stem climate change, and the deadly fires, floods and heatwaves it is causing, and to protect jobs through a transition to a cleaner, more competitive economy. 

Michael Polanyi is policy and campaign manager for nature-based climate solutions at Nature Canada.