Cascading use of wood in Finland – with comparison to selected EU countries

Preface

Cascading use of woody biomass is getting increasing attention in current European discussions on the use of wood in future bioeconomy. For example, the European Commission communication on “Circular Economy” (COM(2014) 398) and the European Union Forest Strategy (COM(2013)659) highlight cascading use. The cascading use is also mentioned in the recently accepted ILUC proposal (outcome of the European Parliament’s second reading, April 2015, 8037/15), concerning the sustainability criteria of transport biofuels. In addition, European Commission is currently (2015) carrying out a ’Study on the optimised cascading use of wood’.

This report gives a short introduction on the discussion on cascading principles and definitions, and shows examples of the cascading flows in Finland and selected other European countries. In addition, recommendations regarding the use of cascading concept in policy-making are given. This report concentrates on woody biomass, but cascading principle could also be used in relation to other limited resources, such as other biomass and fossil resources.

The work was completed in the first half of 2015 by Senior Scientist Laura Sokka, Research Scientist Kati Koponen and Senior Scientist Janne T. Keränen. It was a part of a project related to the sustainability of forest energy in Finland, and done under supervision of The Ministry of Employment and the Economy (steering group: Juhani Tirkkonen, Reetta Sorsa, and Hanne Siikavirta).

The statements expressed in this report are from clearly marked references or those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the view of the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy.