As the world looks on in horror as Russian armed forces advance into Ukraine, many are looking for ways to kneecap the financial machinery underpinning Russia’s military.
The European Union has already imposed an unprecedented package of sanctions. But environmental organizations in Europe and further afield are urging further action, including Russia’s lucrative trade in wood.
A group of over 120 human rights and environmental organizations – primarily from Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Belarus – is calling on governments to ban imports of all wood and timber products from Russia and its ally Belarus. The group is also urging forestry certification programs to immediately stop certifying wood from these two countries.
Sam Lawson, director of Earthsight, explains the impetus for the campaign: “Ukrainian homes are being bombed everyday and many thousands are already homeless. Decisive action needs to be taken across the sector in solidarity.”
The sector they’re targeting is enormous. According to the coalition, wood and timber products from Russian and Belarus were worth $13.9 billion in 2021. According to Earthsight, the UK alone imported 366,000 tonnes of Russian wood pellets in 2021, a 42% increase from the previous year.
These products include paper, furniture, and wood pellets. Although they’ve been associated with deforestation and rising carbon emissions, wood pellets continue to heat many European homes. According to Lawson, “In terms of bioenergy/pellet importers, Van Leer and CM Biomass are among the biggest importers of wood from Russia. They should be responding promptly to this crisis and shutting down Russian operations.” Earthsight analysis indicates that most of Denmark’s wood imports from Russia come in the form of wood pellets traded by CM Biomass, one of the world’s largest independent wood pellet companies.
This type of pressure may already be having an effect. Two of the 15 companies in Europe and the US identified by Earthsight as the biggest importers of Russian wood, IKEA and the Finnish pulp and paper corporation Stora Ensor, recently announced that they would be pausing their operations in Russia.
The wood campaign isn’t the only attempt to halt imports of natural resources from Russia. The Ukrainian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources is also calling for the EU to ban Russian forestry products.
Another campaign is targeting Russian oil and gas. According to a coalition of 25 European NGOs convened by the campaign group Transport & Environment, oil has financed the Russian military for decades; and every day EU countries spend hundreds of millions of euros on Russian oil and gas.
Cutting off this supply could harm ordinary Europeans who depend on Russian oil and gas for affordable heating. So governments that take the principled stance of ceasing the Russian fossil fuels and wood trade will need to investigate fuel subsidies for low-income residents, as well as investing rapidly in genuinely renewable forms of energy (unlike wood, which takes decades to regenerate).
Looking toward the future, Transport & Environment are calling, among other measures, for a target of 50% electric car and van sales by 2025 – ahead of existing EU and UK targets.
It may be hard to keep this kind of future orientation in mind given the emergency in Ukraine. But shifting away from oil, gas, and biomass is critical on both climate and security grounds – and the current conflict is showing how the two are intertwined.
Almuth Ernsting, co-director of Biofuelwatch, warns: “Across Europe, efforts to help stop this war by applying maximum sanctions on Russia and Belarus are being stymied because of dependence on Russian oil and gas imports. What we are now seeing is that energy companies with different vested interests are exploiting this war and the need to strengthen sanctions against Putin’s and Lukashenko’s regime by pushing their own harmful interests.” This includes the expansion of biomass energy.
Ernsting continues: “No doubt, pellet and woodchip producers from countries around the world will try to profiteer from any energy companies stop burning wood from Russia and Belarus. What climate and energy justice campaigners worldwide need to do and are doing is unite behind a clear message the urgent response by governments must be to endorse and greatly speed up a transition to genuine, non-emissive renewable energy and an end to wasteful energy use.”
