The EU's climate package risks hitting the Swedish forestry industry and the green transition

The forestry industry is important for Norrbotten. It constitutes a large part of the regional industry and is also crucial for the fossil-free societal transformation. Now, development in the forest is threatened by the EU's new climate package, Fit for 55.

Region Norrbotten organized a seminar in the Riksdagshuset about the EU's upcoming proposal for climate legislation and what consequences it may have for the Swedish forestry industry. The seminar was organized at the end of March together with members of parliament Isak From (S) and Peter Helander (C). During the seminar, representatives of the forestry industry and the North Sweden European Office shared their views on the upcoming proposal, which goes by the name Fit for 55.

– The forest and the forestry industry are very important for Norrbotten and the whole of northern Sweden. We now see a risk that there will be proposals from the EU that would entail severe restrictions on the possibility of using forests. This could in turn lead to serious consequences for jobs in Norrbotten. It is also a climate-related disaster not to use the renewable raw material from the forest, says Sven Jonsson, strategist at Region Norrbotten's Stockholm office.

Today, around 3000 jobs in Norrbotten are directly or indirectly linked to the forest industry. This represents almost a quarter of all industrial employees in the county. The industry has a turnover of SEK 14 billion each year and almost 90% of the value added is exported. Tax revenues from the forest industry also constitute 5% of the total municipal and county council taxes in Norrbotten.

"It's important to see what the forestry industry can do for the climate and also for society in the form of tax revenue and jobs," says Ulf Westerberg, innovation leader at Piteå Science Park.

Among the speakers at the seminar was Lotta Rönström, senior advisor at the North Sweden European Office in Brussels. She believes that the EU Commission's climate package involves several legislative changes that could negatively affect the forestry industry.

– The Riksdag still has the opportunity to send a message to those who go down to Brussels and negotiate these proposals. It is important that we, from the national and regional level, come up with a unified message to the EU Commission and other actors in Brussels so that the final legislation does not block the climate work that we in Sweden are doing with the help of the forest, she says.

Lotta Rönström. Senior advisor at North Sweden European Office in Brussels.

Want to know more?

Welcome to contact Sven Jonsson, external relations Stockholm office.
sven.jonsson@norrbotten.se, 070-577 44 55