overview - pulp and paper products

Canada’s forest products industry is a leader in addressing greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1990, Canadian pulp and paper mills have reduced their total greenhouse gas emissions by 84 per cent – over 10 times Canada’s Kyoto targets – through facility upgrades and innovative processes. Today, nearly 60 per cent of Canada’s pulp and paper sector’s energy consumption comes from biomass. Both renewable and carbon neutral, biomass sources include spent pulping liquor, wood waste and other minor sources. Combined with small hydro the sector is 60 per cent energy self-sufficient.

FPAC members’ pulp and paper facilities have increased their co-generation capacity by 80 per cent. The forest products industry has the largest industrial cogeneration potential in the country, with roughly 30 per cent of the cogeneration capacity in Canada.

In 2003, the pulp and paper sector became the first major Canadian industry to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government, committing the industry to further greenhouse gas emission reductions.