Australia's forest industries welcome the Albanese Government's target to see one million new homes constructed by 2030 under the National Housing Accord announced in this week's Federal Budget. Ensuring one million houses are built with timber would deliver a similar CO2 mitigation as taking all of NSW's registered vehicles off the road for one-year, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) Ross Hampton said today.
"As Australia works harder to fight climate change, building new homes with sustainable, local timber is a simple and effective way to help drive down Australia's emissions," Ross Hampton said.
AFPA analysis shows building one million houses using timber could deliver a 14 million tonne CO2 mitigation towards the Government's legislated target of reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. That's the equivalent of taking six million cars off the road for a whole year!
The construction, operation and maintenance of buildings accounts for almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Choosing timber in new home builds means starting with a healthy CO2 credit, as opposed to potential deficits in new dwellings built with other materials.
"Of course, to build new houses with timber we must grow supply by planting more timber production trees. The Government has a 'one billion new trees' by 2030 goal that must be achieved, otherwise Australia will be 250,000 timber house-frames short of demand by 2035. That's the equivalent of cities the size of Newcastle and Geelong combined," Ross Hampton said.
"Growing more trees for timber and fibre is a win, win, win. A win to fight climate change at a practical level, a win for jobs and employment in a sustainable industry, especially in our regions, and a win to build much needed supply of the most sustainable and natural building material going around," Ross Hampton concluded.
