Global greenhouse gas reduction in paper industry requires diverse strategies: study

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- A group of researchers have assessed the net global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of domestic paper-related industries across 30 major countries from 1961 to 2019 and found significant differences in terms of historical emission evolution trends and structures in these countries, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature.

The pulp and paper industry is an important contributor to GHG emissions. Country-specific strategies are essential for the industry to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, given its vast heterogeneities across countries, the study noted.

Researchers from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Fudan University cooperated with international partners to set up a greenhouse gas emissions dataset concerning the paper industry and proposed a strategy to reach net-zero emission by 2050, which took into account the local conditions of countries.

The research showed that the global paper industry had emitted 43.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases from 1961 to 2019.

Net greenhouse gas emissions of the paper industry globally showed a tendency to rise first and then decline or stabilize.

All countries are expected to achieve net-zero emissions for their pulp and paper industries by 2050, with a single measure used for most developed countries and multiple measures employed for the majority of developing countries, according to the study.

The results of scenario analysis showed that improvements in both energy structures and energy efficiency are effective measures to reduce emissions, and which can achieve average emission reductions of 64 percent and 41 percent, respectively, across the 30 countries studied.