The carbon dioxide economy as a major opportunity for Finland’s forest sector and national economy

The carbon dioxide (CO₂) economy offers opportunities to increase national economic value, improve the resource efficiency of the forest industry, achieve climate targets, and promote the circular economy. Capturing, storing, and utilizing biogenic CO₂ could significantly enhance the forest sector’s contribution to Finland’s national economy.

Together with VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland), we explored the potential of the carbon dioxide economy for the Finnish forest sector. The value added to the national economy per processed cubic meter of wood from the forest sector has significantly declined over recent decades. According to our calculations, capturing, storing, and utilizing biogenic CO₂ could substantially increase the sector’s value added. Capturing the 20 million tonnes of biogenic CO₂ annually produced by the forest industry could generate up to €8.6 billion in added value for Finland’s economy by 2040.

We analyzed the impact of the CO₂ economy on national value added by 2040 through four different scenarios, where CO₂ is utilized in products and permanently stored. According to the scenarios, using biogenic CO₂ in combination with renewable hydrogen to produce products such as aviation fuels could add €2.6 billion in value to the national economy. Storing biogenic CO₂ could generate €1.5 billion in added value, and if compensation for storage increases, the value could rise to as much as €3.6 billion.

In the coming years, evolving EU and national regulations will largely determine how economically viable CO₂ capture, storage, and utilization will become. However, it is clear that the carbon dioxide economy cannot materialize without ambitious climate policy. On Finland’s scale, there is enough biogenic CO₂ to meet both utilization and permanent storage needs, creating technological carbon sinks. If Finland succeeds in developing technologies and services that meet the demands of global transformation, the resulting value added and global carbon handprint could be highly significant.