International NGO response to Finnish and Swedish Prime Minister statements on LULUCF
14 October 2025
On 15 September, the prime ministers of Finland and Sweden sent a letter to the President of the European Commission asking for concessions within the current Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) target, the EU’s forest and climate target. In return, they offered to support the Commission’s proposed 2040 target, essentially holding the EU climate law ransom over LULUCF.
54 NGOs respond to the misleading arguments of the letter and outline the multiple benefits that fair LULUCF targets contribute to.
In the open letter, NGOs argue that:
- Finnish and Swedish Prime Ministers are seeking to weaken EU forestry climate regulations, which would undermine carbon accounting and prioritise short-term industry interests over long-term climate goals.
- Scientific evidence, shows that maintaining forest carbon stocks provides greater climate benefits than burning wood for energy, yet 80% of Sweden's and 61% of Finland's harvested biomass is burned or used in short-lived products.
- Decades of clear-cutting have devastated old-growth forests and reduced carbon stocks, with Sweden's forests containing 52-59 million tonnes less CO₂ than required and Finland's forestry sector now emitting over one quarter of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions.
- Sweden's outdoor recreation sector employs 167,000 people with €14 billion turnover compared to forestry's fewer than 30,000 jobs, demonstrating that forest preservation supports greater economic value than industrial logging.
- Granting these "flexibilities" would undermine EU credibility and set dangerous precedents for other sectors seeking climate exemptions. Policies should instead eliminate destructive subsidies and support sustainable forest management practices.
The letter encourages the LULUCF policy to be guided by science and the public interest and calls for interaction with civil society, as well as sustainable foresters to identify ways forward.
Categories: NGO Statements, LULUCF, European forests
