European paper industry supports EU climate change 'leadership' but cautious about tools for delivery

24 January 2008
by eub2 -- last modified 24 January 2008

The European pulp and paper industry welcomes the EU's lead on climate change but the implementation of the package proposed today may impact on the competitiveness of our industry while at the same time relying on it to deliver results.

The European pulp and paper industry is encouraged by the fact that the European Commission has clearly understood the need to increase the amount of biomass on the European markets in order for bio-energy to meet the proposed targets in the directive. It further welcomes the strong focus on resource and energy efficient solutions.  
 
In the directive, member states are asked to actively focus on biomass mobilisation in their action plans and the Commission itself will monitor the development of biomass availability and the impact on the different sectors using biomass. This approach follows the European Council request of March 2007, asking for criteria and provisions to avoid conflicts between the different uses of biomass.

As the recent and much discussed Joint Research Centre's (JRC) research paper on biofuels shows, as well as several other recent studies, there will be a huge challenge for the EU to provide the biomass needed for biofuel and bio-energy production, making the energy package a land-use issue and important element in the CAP review and reform.
 
"The European Commission has drafted a proposal which can enable the paper industry to play its part in contributing to the target for increasing the share of renewable energy by 2020." said Teresa Presas, CEPI Managing Director. "As the largest producer and user of biomass-based energy, we welcome the fact that it goes some way towards reassuring the paper industry that the concerns raised by European Heads of Government at the Spring 2007 Council that any new legislation should avoid potentially damaging effects of support schemes for competing biomass have been addressed", she added.
 
Of course there are challenges in the proposal that still need to be clarified for example the sustainability criteria for biomass will not be developed until 2010. This opens up a two tier system where the same raw material – wood – can be used in two different ways, for example to make paper or to make energy, without the same sustainability criteria requirements.  
 
"We now hope that both the European Parliament and Council will further improve the draft to respect our call for a clear reference to the "waste hierarchy". Adoption of this principle will reduce the risk of direct burning of all household waste instead of supporting the recycling of paper in line with Commissioner Dimas' proposal for the future recycling society", concluded Ms Presas.  

CEPI believes that it is now possible for the European institutions to adopt the draft directive by the end of the year and hopes that the final legislation will have a real impact on the reduction of carbon emissions without weakening the competitiveness of European industry.

CEPI champions the interests of the pulp and paper industry in Europe, directly representing the National Associations of the paper industry in 17 member countries. Through its 17 member countries* CEPI represents 800 pulp, paper and board producing companies across Europe, ranging from small and medium sized companies to multi- nationals, and 1,200 paper mills. Together they represent 27% of world production.

CEPI aisbl - The Confederation of European Paper Industries