Emissions of greenhouse gases and the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been increasing exponentially since the 19th century. The main source of emissions has been the burning of petroleum, coal, and natural gas. To mitigate global warming and climate change, emissions should be reduced.

An essential step in sustainable development is to disconnect the historical dependency between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth. Such a step requires new production technologies and increased utilisation of biomasses - without increased deforestation. Because the formico® processes do not exploit forest resources and they are self-sufficient in terms of energy, they are effective solutions for minimising the carbon footprint of pulping, papermaking, and transportation.

Due to limited forest resources, non-wood materials are the most potential raw material in the growing paper markets. Production of non-wood pulp will increase together with improved education and economic growth. With conventional technology, production of each tonne of non-wood pulp generates more than two tonnes of carbon dioxide. Application of formicofib™ technology in pulping of non-wood feedstocks can potentially reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions up to 100 million tonnes.

Lignocellulosic raw materials, and especially non-wood feedstocks, are the most potential alternative for replacing crude oil as the source of liquid fuels for transportation. Currently, the annual emissions of petroleum burning are approximately 3 billion tonnes. Compared with current practise, use of formicobio™ technology in the production of biofuels and biochemicals can potentially reduce the carbon footprint of these products by more than 80 %.