Paying The Price – Farmers should not escape the GHG load
The New Zealand Government is preparing to abandon the threatened carbon tax on its citizens, in favour of an emissions trading scheme. But there is continuing disquiet about its Kyoto commitments, their impact on the country’s economy and society, and whether or not the GHG load will be shared equitably – as Tony Neilson reports.
The superior environmental performance of wood over other building products is undeniable, yet timber continues to get a raw deal from construction greenhouse gas emission and energy rating regulators. Jim Bowden reports.
Stories about new technologies for the extraction of gaseous and liquid fuels from woody biomass crop up regularly. But Michael Dover reports on an exciting new pilot project at the University of Canterbury and the prospects for wood as the energy crop of the future.
The politicians have finally realised that wood should be encouraged because it is the only truly sustainable construction material. Now all the New Zealand timber industry has to do is figure out how to take advantage of this new insight – as Michael Dover reports.
Set up in 2005, the Forestry Industry Development Agenda (FIDA) is an initiative linking the Government and the forest industry via the Wood Council of New Zealand (WoodCo), but Inwood inquiries suggest its days may be numbered.
Demand for chain-of-custody certified wood is apparently growing faster in China than anywhere else in the world, which is why two strong competitors have recently been there promoting their credentials, as Jim Bowden reports.
Chile – South America’s biggest softwood exporter – is training its sights on the Australasian market as a fresh outlet for its massive engineered wood capacity, driven by a dramatic downturn in the US housing sector and warehouses bulging with product from Santiago to Punta Arenas. Jim Bowden reports.
The New Zealand Government is preparing to abandon the threatened carbon tax on its citizens, in favour of an emissions trading scheme. But there is continuing disquiet about its Kyoto commitments, their impact on the country’s economy and society, and whether or not the GHG load will be shared equitably – as Tony Neilson reports.
