Energy

Energy is currently a hot topic, but it has been a key issue for the European paper industry for a long time. Because energy can account for up to 30% of its costs, the industry has looked to sustainable and renewable sources and today is the one of the least fossil fuel intensive industries in Europe. It is also Europe’s biggest industrial user and producer of renewable energy. The industry has invested heavily in combined heat and power generation (CHP), and sustained efforts have reduced CO₂ emissions by 20 % in a decade. Growing concerns on climate change and changing approaches to policy and legislation on buying and selling energy, mean that energy remains top of the paper industry’s agenda.

For example, CEPI has recently published an independent study showing that using wood as a resource for paper products first and only using it as a source of energy at the end of the product life cycle adds four times more added value to the economy and retains six times more jobs than simply burning wood for energy. This becomes particularly relevant in light of the new EU targets for energy from renewable sources, to be fulfilled by 2020.

In 2007 CEPI joined the Sustainable Energy Europe Campain of the European Commission as campaign associate.

Marco Mensink, Energy & Environment Director
Noura Younes, Assistant