Science-based forest policies urgently needed for effective climate action
There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to take effective climate action, and EU forest policies need to be more science-based to succeed, write Michael Norton and Jaana Bäck.
Professor Michael Norton is the Environment Programme Director at the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). Professor Jaana Bäck specialises in forestry at the University of Helsinki.
Earlier this month, the EASAC, which ‘provides a means for the collective voice of European science to be heard,’ confirmed the evidence that there are fundamental conflicts between the competing demands being made on Europe’s forests and the finite resources and services they can offer. Policy action is needed to reconcile these conflicts.
Nowhere is the conflict starker than between forests’ vital role as a carbon sink to mitigate climate change, and the increasing pressure to increase their use as a source of energy.
CIFOR