• Paper does not kill the climate.
• The paper industry has steadily reduced its carbon dioxide emissions.
• Through the encouragement of sustainable forest management it helps to reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

Around 160 kg of CO2 are emitted during the production of 200 kg of paper - the average European per capita consumption - equivalent to the amount emitted by a typical family car over 1,000 km.

The paper life cycle is CO2-neutral. This is the result above all of the renewable forest at the start of the production chain, through which at least the same amount of CO2 is stored as is emitted at the end of the production chain through the thermal use and composting of paper. It should also be borne in mind that the burning of non-recyclable fibres saves on fossil fuels.

The current discussion of the climate frequently refers to the “carbon footprint” of products or processes as a way of expressing the emission of climate-relevant gases by a process or through the manufacture of a product. The manufacture of a piece of paper has a carbon footprint, as does a trip to the supermarket.

By way of comparison:

Users of e-mails for business purposes generate 131 kg CO2 per year, of which 22 per cent results from spam (source: Die Welt).

1,000 Google queries generate 200 g CO2, the same amount as a mid-size car travelling 1 km (source: Google).

Spam e-mail worldwide uses 33 billion kWh of energy per year. This is equivalent to the energy consumption of 2.4 million US households and the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million cars (source: McAfee/CF).

According to research by the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology, the carbon footprint when reading a daily newspaper is 20 per cent lower than it would be if the same information were to be obtained electronically on a PC from the Internet. An individual subscribing to and reading a newspaper for a year is thus responsible for the annual emission of 28 kg CO2. The equivalent for thirty minutes of computer time per day is 35 kg CO2. This does not take into account the fact that newspapers are frequently read by several individuals.

For economical and environmental reasons the paper industry works continuously to optimise its processes. Since 1990, the specific CO2 emission per ton of paper has been reduced by over 34 per cent (source: VDP monitoring of the climate protection agreement by German industry).