Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals in the Finnish forest sector over scope 1, 2, and 3

Abstract

Forests play a central role in the Finland’s bioeconomy strategy and are key to addressing climate challenges and achieving national climate neutrality targets. In this context, quantifying the forest sector’s total emissions is essential for supporting effective and evidence-based climate-mitigation planning. This study develops a framework to evaluate the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of Finland’s forest sector for the year 2023 using an organizational carbon footprinting approach that combines top-down and bottom-up methodologies, and aligned with the Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 structure. The total life cycle GHG emissions from Finnish forest sector were approximately 8.4 Mt CO₂e. Organic soils are the largest contributors, followed by processing of exported products, upstream emissions from pulp and paper production and transportation of exported items. Most of the emissions originate from Scope 3 sources (approximately 68%), primarily associated with materials and suppliers over which forest-sector stakeholders have no direct control. This was followed by Scope 1 emissions (around 27%) and Scope 2 emissions (around 5%), which together represent roughly 11% of Finland’s total energy-related emissions. Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) in Finland’s forest sector result in a net removal, with a value of -0.38 Mt CO₂ eq. The developed framework provides a comprehensive assessment by identifying both chain-specific and scope-specific emission contributions. It also supports annual updates and can be adapted to different geographic regions. Such an approach would offer policy makers a clearer understanding of the forest sector’s role in meeting national and international climate change mitigation targets.