Wood flows in the EU: towards a strengthened contribution of wood use to climate change mitigation

Ambitious goals are set globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This necessitates urgent societal and economic reforms, as well greenhouse gas reductions across all sectors. Wood use plays a critical role but estimating its contribution to climate change mitigation is hampered by limited information notably on the final uses of wood. Consideration of the final uses of wood and their lifespan is crucial since it influences the carbon storage residence time and defines the substitution potentials. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a dynamic material flow analysis for Europe that connects existing statistics on the production, consumption, and trade of semi-finished products to final uses.
We employed the Open Dynamic Material Systems Model (ODYM), which has been calibrated to track wood flows and temporary carbon storage in harvested wood products while taking their final uses into account, in accordance with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines. Our findings will provide an understanding of how wood has been used in the European Union from the 1900s to the present, from wood production to final uses (construction, furniture, paper and packaging, energy, chemicals, and others). This dynamic material flow analysis is carried out as a first step towards a better understanding of the dynamics of the wood carbon stocks and flows in the European Union, with the goal of linking it to Life Cycle Assessment tools and approached to quantify substitution effects.