This is the conclusion of a recent report made by the Norwegian Institute of Land Inventory (NIJOS). Existing forests absorb almost 21 million tons of carbon dioxide. This figure equals 38 per cent of Norway’s climatic gas emissions of human origin.Absorption of carbon dioxide in forests has increased by 60 per cent.
When forests grow they remove climatic gases from the air by binding carbon dioxide. In the period 1990 – 2003 total binding of climatic gases has increased by about 60 per cent. The main reason for this favourable development is the considerable growth of Norwegian forests, which is bigger than ever before in recent times.
These figures are reported to the UN under the Kyoto Convention emission trading scheme
This work constitutes one element of an annual monitoring programme, which includes reporting to the UN under the Kyoto Convention. In 2004 the UN Climate Panel drew up guidelines for good practices in calculating emissions and absorption of climatic gases resulting from changes in cultivated and afforested areas. The NIJOS report gives information about the data bases and the methods applied for calculating Norwegian figures from 1990 onwards.
A co-operation project
The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority monitors emissions of climatic gases in Norway. Since 1919 NIJOS has made surveys of Norwegian forests by means of data on soil, forest, outfield and landscape resources.