The contribution of wood-based construction materials for leveraging a low carbon building sector in europe

Increasing the use of engineered wood products in the European Union can contribute to leveraging a shift towards a more emission-efficient production of construction materials. Engineered timber products have already been substituted for carbon and energy intensive concrete and steel-based building constructions, but they still lack the capacities and market demand to be more than just a niche market. However, in the post-crisis period after 2008 the consumption of engineered wood products began rising in Europe. In this paper we analyse options for the future development of engineered wood products taking into consideration policy barriers and technical and environmental potentials for accelerating market introduction as part of a comprehensive scenario approach. For the European building sector we assessed an achievable potential for net carbon storage of about 46 million tonnes CO2-eqv. per year in 2030. To unlock this potential a bundle of instruments is necessary for increasing the market share for engineered wood products against the backdrop of existing policy instruments such as the gradual introduction of stricter rules for carbon emissions trading or more incentives for the voluntary use of innovative wood construction materials.