Carbon sink weakening undermines the climate benefits from forest energy

There’s a new report out on the climate impacts of Finnish forest energy production by Jari Liski et al. from Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE):

“If forest energy production is increased as planned by the Government, the carbon sink capacity of Finnish forests will suffer. A weaker carbon sink capacity will cut actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achievable through forest energy in Finland by 60-80 per cent by 2020. A study commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment from the Finnish Environment Institute, published in February, examines the climate impacts of, and particulate matter emissions attributable to, rapidly increasing forest energy production.”

Full news release is available in English.

The report is also available (4 MB PDF), but only the abstract is in English (at the end of the document).