Open AccessQuantifying the global warming potential of CO 2 emissions from wood fuels
Author(s) -
Holtsmark Bjart
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
gcb bioenergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.378
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1757-1707
pISSN - 1757-1693
DOI - 10.1111/gcbb.12110
Subject(s) - environmental science , greenhouse gas , bioenergy , tonne , biomass (ecology) , biofuel , fossil fuel , global warming , global warming potential , carbon sequestration , combustion , climate change , climate change mitigation , ecology , carbon dioxide , waste management , chemistry , engineering , biology , organic chemistry
Recent studies have introduced the metric GWP bio , an indicator of the potential global warming impact of CO 2 emissions from biofuels. When a time horizon of 100 years was applied, the studies found the GWP bio of bioenergy from slow‐growing forests to be significantly lower than the traditionally calculated GWP of CO 2 from fossil fuels. This result means that bioenergy is an attractive energy source from a climate mitigation perspective. The present paper provides an improved method for quantifying GWP bio . The method is based on a model of a forest stand that includes basic dynamics and interactions of the forest's multiple carbon pools, including harvest residues, other dead organic matter, and soil carbon. Moreover, the baseline scenario (with no harvest) takes into account that a mature stand will usually continue to capture carbon if not harvested. With these methodological adjustments, the resulting GWP bio estimates are found to be two to three times as high as the estimates of GWP bio found in other studies, and also significantly higher than the GWP of fossil CO 2 , when a 100‐year time horizon is applied. Hence, the climate impact per unit of CO 2 emitted seems to be even higher for the combustion of slow‐growing biomass than for the combustion of fossil carbon in a 100‐year time frame.