In their report on offsetting CO2 emissions, the Carbon Market Watch’s main criticism was the lack of visibility in actions, as well as a heavy reliance on foresting in developing countries. This approach may result in CO2 recovery taking up to 70 years, if not longer, or never, while emissions are being released in the present.
There could be alternative methods to achieve this goal. For instance, consider a scenario where carbon is stored long-term in tandem with air travel, and this storage is not only visible but tangible—you can even physically interact with it.
In Finland, sawmills produce over 3,000,000 cubic meters of sawdust annually, which could serve as a valuable raw material for particleboard furniture or potentially as a building material, such as Finnshield panels, in the future.
Each truckload of sawdust emits 30,000 kilograms of CO2 after transported to a boiler plant or via pellet factory. This emission is equivalent to that of 30 flights from Helsinki to Singapore and back. To put it in perspective, it would take ten trucks to offset the emissions of an entire Airbus A350 plane.
The amount of these trucks is in the hundreds every day, emphasizing the scale of this environmental
This issue persists due to a misguided political stance that categorizes all wood burning as carbon-free. Additionally, it involves the regrettable practice of burning raw materials that could otherwise be utilized for long-term carbon storage.