The Government continues its work on promoting wood

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for the invitation to close this conference on modern sustainable timber architecture. I am very pleased to see so many people gathered to work for the use of wood as a building material, and I have found the presentations today very engaging and informative

The Norwegian Wood project, including this conference, is an important tool for spreading knowledge on wood as a construction material.

The Ministry of Agriculture supports the goal of the forest- and wood industry of increasing the utilisation of wood.

I would like to emphasize the environmental aspects, represented by our work against climate change, as it certainly has implications for the wood sector.

Norwegian climate policy acknowledges the role of forests in mitigating emissions of climate gases, both as carbon sinks and as a resource for substituting fossil fuel (bioenergy) as well as substituting more energy consuming construction materials. 

This means that we have an opportunity to promote increased use of wood as part of the policy on climate change, and we will certainly use that opportunity.

The Norwegian forest resources have doubled in volume since 1900.  Thus, we have a solid resource base for producing timber.

The construction industry is responsible for large amounts of emissions, from the production of the materials as well as from the phase in which the building is utilised. The latter is the most energy intensive phase.

Wood is an environmentally sound material in two respects: firstly, the production process is less energy intensive than for other materials. Secondly, as I just mentioned, wood stores carbon, and will thus function as a carbon sink throughout its lifetime.

The National Association of Norwegian Architects published in 2004 a study of the effect of substitution by increased use of wood in new buildings. The report estimated that by substituting for example concrete with wood, emissions will be reduced by 0,4 kilo CO2 equivalents per kilo increased use of wood.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forests have developed measures for increasing the use of wood. In 2006, the Ministry established the Wood-Based Innovation Scheme, administered by Innovation Norway, which has a budget for 2009 amounting to 27 million. The Scheme is open for enterprises in the wood industry, as well as for architects and entrepreneurs.

Research and research-based innovation is extremely important in order to strengthen the competitiveness and the value creation in the forestry- and wood sector.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food supports agricultural research with around 500 million kroner annually. The amount is shared between direct grants through the National Budget and means from the Agricultural Agreement, as well as research levies on agriculture.

A program in the Norwegian Research Council aimed at research on wood is part of this, and The Norwegian Institute for Forest and Landscape is also financed over our budget.

A report from the Norwegian Institute for Forest and Landscape, published earlier this year, compared a number of research projects on wood and came to the following conclusions:

• In 95 % of the cases where wood was compared to alternative materials, wood was concluded to be as good as (35 % of the cases) or better (65 %) 
• Less than 3 % of the energy content of each log is spent on providing the industry with timber. 
• The report indicates that intensive sustainable forestry is the most cost-effective measure in order to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Increased lifetime for wood in construction will contribute to higher carbon sequestration. It is therefore important to find sustainable and longer lasting solutions for preservation of wood
• Life Cycle Assessment may be one of the most important arguments for increased use of wood in the future. 

I have now focused on our national efforts to promote the use of wood. However, we also work internationally in this field.

We devote much time and effort in the work of the Ministerial Conferences for the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), of which Norway has the leadership from 2008.

One of the main five elements of the MCPFE working program is Wood Mobilisation and Sound Use of Wood. This is based on recognition of the need to enhance wood supply in order to meet an increasing demand, as well as to facilitate use of wood from sustainable sources.

This is to illustrate that whereas you cooperate on enterprise level, we cooperate on government level, working for the same goal.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food will continue its work on promoting wood as an environmental asset.  I will encourage you to continue the good work started by the Norwegian Wood project and this conference.

Thank you for your attention!