Sludge Watch ==> Canadian Paper Company Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Biomass + Efficiency

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070611.wclimate11/BNStory/National/

Slowpokes win the race to cut emissions

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

>From Monday's Globe and Mail

June 11, 2007 at 4:10 AM EDT

When it comes to going green, Catalyst Paper Corp. can say it walks the 
talk.

The maker of phone-book paper and newsprint has one of the best records in 
Canada on greenhouse gases, cutting emissions by about one million tonnes 
annually, a 70-per-cent drop from what its mills released in 1990.

The reduction is more than 10 times the 6-per-cent commitment that federal 
Environment Minister John Baird complains is so economically ruinous under 
the Kyoto Protocol, and is equivalent to permanently hauling 250,000 cars 
off the road.

Emissions are down mainly because the company, based in British Columbia, is 
burning more leftover bark and wood scraps, a renewable energy source, to 
supply power at its mills. It's also tweaked its mills to run more 
efficiently.

"Everybody wins," says Catalyst's director of sustainability, Graham 
Kissack. "Economically, it helps the company. Environmentally, it helps the 
planet. We get our carbon footprint down."

You'd think there might be accolades for such good corporate environmental 
citizenship, but think again.

Throughout the forest industry, companies have been reducing the use of 
fossil fuels blamed for global warming, but this may have been a strategic 
mistake.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper was extolling his government's emission 
plan in Europe before last week's G8 summit, calling it a model for 
countries such as China, the Canadian effort isn't without serious failings 
in the eyes of many critics.

Under the plan, companies have to cut emissions 20 per cent below 2006 
levels by 2020. This means businesses that made the most aggressive cuts 
before 2006 will be worse off than the slowpokes who did little. Forest 
industry executives are steamed at the Harper government over this.

"We think the government's made a clear policy error," said Avrim Lazar, 
president of the Forest Products Association of Canada, the industry's trade 
association.

"If one guy is driving a Hummer and another guy is driving a Prius, and you 
tell them both to reduce their fuel consumption by 20 per cent, the guy in 
the Hummer can go out and get a Ford truck and the guy in the Prius has to 
buy a bicycle. It's insane."

The travails of the forest industry are a microcosm of what many say is 
wrong with the government plan to have industry, responsible for half of the 
country's emissions, fight climate change.

Many companies have done a surprisingly good job of lowering the releases of 
planet-warming gases. The manufacturing sector, of which forestry is a part, 
cut its emissions by 7.4 per cent from 1990 to 2003, more than beating the 
6-per-cent reduction Canada has to make under the Kyoto Protocol. While 
cutting emissions, companies also expanded production by 48 per cent, 
according to figures from Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.

But a key part of the Conservative plan is switching the base year from 
which emissions cuts are calculated. The plan suggests using 2006 as a 
baseline rather than the 1990 specified in Kyoto, which Canada ratified in 
2002. After the treaty went into force, many industries assumed Ottawa would 
honour the 1990 date.

The date change is a windfall to the two big industries whose emissions have 
risen sharply in the past 15 years: the oil and gas sector, up 40.9 per cent 
from 1990 to 2003, and electricity generation up nearly as much, 40.6 per 
cent.

Some observers say the only way to put all industries on the same footing on 
emission cuts is by using the date specified in Kyoto. "To us, that seems 
fair," said Matthew Bramley, climate change expert at the Pembina Institute, 
an environmental think tank.

While most of the Harper government's attention on biofuels focuses on 
ethanol, giving high subsidies for turning corn and other food into vehicle 
fuel, out in the backwoods, many forest companies have quietly been turning 
tree scraps into energy.

It isn't glamorous, but burning everything from the black sludge left over 
from paper making to sawdust is a big reason the industry has a good record 
among manufacturers for reducing greenhouse gases, down 44 per cent since 
1990.

Forest companies require copious amounts of both heat and electricity in 
their mills. They can get both from wood by using boilers that burn tree 
scraps rather than oil or natural gas. Steam from the boilers is run first 
through a turbine for electricity, and then piped into the mills for 
paper-drying and other needs.

Retooling doesn't come cheap. Catalyst spent $100-million at its Powell 
River mill, which no longer needs fossil fuels.

In recognition of greenhouse-gas cuts before 2006, the government is 
offering industry credit in its emission scheme for up to 15 million tonnes 
of earlier reductions.

The trouble is, the amount will almost certainly fall short of claims. 
Forest companies alone say they've cut nine million tonnes. The amount is so 
small "there is no way" that the reductions achieved "would actually be 
allocated to them," said Isabelle Des Chênes, a spokeswoman for the Forest 
Products Association of Canada.

Industry's changing contribution to global warming

Many manufacturing industries have managed to cut their greenhouse-gas 
emissions since 1990, but these efforts have been overwhelmed by increases 
in other sectors. The oil and gas industry, the oil sands, and utilities 
have the worst records.

Change in greenhouse-gas emissions, 1990-2003, %

Pulp and Paper/ -32.9

Construction/ -30.9

Manufacturing (combustion-based)/-10.4

Total manufacturing/ -7.4

Manufacturing (industrial processes)/ -4.5

Other sources/ 14.3

Residential and commercial energy use/ 20.3

Waste/ 25.0

Transportation/ 26.7

Electricity/ 40.6

Oil and gas/ 40.9

Mining*/ 103.7

* The increase in mining emissions is largely a result of

Alberta oil-sands development, which is included in this sector.

CARRIE COCKBURN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL: SOURCE: CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS & 
EXPORTERS