Analysis Of The Potential Of Sustainable Forest Based Bioenergy For Climate Change Mitigation

For thousands of years, forest biomass or wood has been among the main energy sources of humans around the world. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels have replaced wood and become the dominant source of energy. The use of fossil fuels has the disadvantage of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially carbon dioxide (CO2), with the consequent warming of global climate and changes in precipitation. In this context, the substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources like forest biomass is among the ways to mitigate climate change. This book summarizes recent experiences on how to manage forest land to produce woody biomass for energy use and what are the potentials to mitigate climate change by substituting fossil fuels in energy production. In this context, the book addresses how management can affect the supply of energy biomass using short-rotation forestry and the conventional forestry applying long rotations. Furthermore, the book outlines the close interaction between the ecological systems and industrial systems, which controls the carbon cycle between the atmosphere and biosphere. In this context, sustainable forest management is a key to understand and control indirect carbon emissions due to the utilization of forest biomass (e.g. from management, harvesting and logistics, and ecosystem processes), which are often omitted in assessing the carbon neutrality of energy systems based on forest biomass. The focus in this book is on forests and forestry in the boreal and temperate zones, particularly in Northern Europe, where the woody biomass is widely used in the energy industry for producing energy.

Key messages There is potential for certain types of degraded land to be restored into sustainable forest and to produce biomass for renewable energy, if implemented under careful management.Improved strategies are needed to increase the efficiency and sustainability of bioenergy production from forests and restored degraded land.The first requisite step towards the development and implementation of forest-based energy systems are feasibility studies in order to avoid harmful environmental impacts, and to improve socioeconomic well-being.Efficient energy production from forest biomass requires the development of interdisciplinary strategies to sustain continuous biomass supply from available land and maintain ecosystem services and community needs; as well as the employment of suitable energy technologies.

Bioenergy from Sustainable Forestry synthesizes information needed to design or implement sustainable forest management systems for production of biomass for energy in conjunction with other forest products. It is organized around the criteria for sustainable forest management: productivity, environment, social issues, economics, and legal and institutional framework. More than 25 international experts from 10 countries have brought together available ecological, physical, operational, social and economic information and identified gaps in knowledge related to biomass production and harvesting systems. This is the first time that such comprehensive information has been brought together under one cover, using an integrated, holistic approach. Guiding principles and state of the art knowledge are emphasized. The book will enable forest resource managers and planners to evaluate the ability of specific forest regions to sustainably meet bioenergy production demands.

Lord Rutherford has said that all science is either physics or stamp collecting. On that basis the study of forest biomass must be classified with stamp collecting and other such pleasurable pursuits. Japanese scientists have led the world, not only in collecting basic data, but in their attempts to systematise our knowledge of forest biomass. They have studied factors affecting dry matter production of forest trees in an attempt to approach underlying phYf'ical principles. This edition of Professor Satoo's book has been made possible the help of Dr John F. Hosner and the Virginia Poly technical Institute and State University who invited Dr Satoo to Blacksburg for three months in 1973 at about the time when he was in the final stages of preparing the Japanese version. Since then the explosion of world literature on forest biomass has continued to be fired by increasing shortages of timber supplies in many parts of the world as well as by a need to explore renewable sources of energy. In revising the original text I have attempted to maintain the input of Japanese work - much of which is not widely available outside Japan - and to update both the basic information and, where necessary, the conclusions to keep them in tune with current thinking. Those familiar with the Japanese original will find Chapter 3 largely rewritten on the basis of new work - much of which was initiated while Dr Satoo was in Blacksburg.

Charcoal is widely used for cooking and heating in developing countries. The consumption of charcoal has been at high level and the demand may keep growing over the next decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some preliminary studies indicate that among commonly used cooking fuels, unsustainably produced charcoal can be the most greenhouse gas intensive fuels and simple measures could deliver high GHG mitigation benefits. Through the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in 2015, countries set themselves ambitious targets to curb climate change, and forest-related measures have an important role to play in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Over 70% of the countries who have submitted their (intended) nationally determined contributions (NDCs) mention forestry and land use mitigation measures. Despite the importance of woodfuel in many countries, few have explicitly included measures to reduce emissions from woodfuel production and consumption. Many of the NDCs that include forestry do not yet provide detailed information on how mitigation is to be achieved. The overall objective of the publication is to provide data and information to allow for informed decision-making on the contribution sustainable charcoal production and consumption can make to climate change mitigation. More specifically, the publication aims to answer the following questions: - What are the climate change impacts of the current practices on charcoal production and consumption worldwide and across regions? - What is the potential of sustainable charcoal production in GHG emission reductions and how such potential can be achieved? - What are the key barriers to sustainable charcoal production and what actions are required to develop a climate-smart charcoal sector?

In the US South, wood-based bioenergy schemes are being promoted and implemented through a powerful vision merging social, environmental, and economic benefits for rural, forest-dependent communities. While this dominant narrative has led to heavy investment in experimental technologies and rural development, many complexities and complications have emerged during implementation. Forests as Fuel draws on extensive multi-sited ethnography to ground the story of wood-based bioenergy in the biophysical, economic, political, social, and cultural landscape of this region. This book contextualizes energy issues within the history and potential futures of the region’s forested landscapes, highlighting the impacts of varying perceptions of climate change and complex racial dynamics. Eschewing simple answers, the authors illuminate the points of friction that occur as competing visions of bioenergy development confront each other to variously support, reshape, contest, or reject bioenergy development. Building on recent conceptual advances in studies of sociotechnical imaginaries, environmental history, and energy justice, the authors present a careful and nuanced analysis that can provide guidance for promoting meaningful participation of local community members in renewable energy policy and production while recognizing the complex interplay of factors affecting its implementation in local places.

This report examines and compares the greenhouse gas emissions of alternative first-generation and second-generation biofuel production pathways. The emissions balance analysed include greenhouse gas emissions from cultivation, land use change, processing and transport of biofuels. The biofuel production pathways reviewed are: -Biodiesel from palm oil in Indonesia, -Biodiesel from jatropha in South Africa and Mexico, -Bioethanol from sugar cane in South Africa, Mexico and Indonesia, -Bioethanol from wood in South Africa and Mexico, -Fischer-Tropsch diesel from wood in South Africa and Mexico Most calculations are undertaken using a tool developed by the BioGrace project funded by the European Union. For land use change emissions, three default values based on results from the partial equilibrium Global Biomass Optimisation Model (GLOBIOM) are used. An allocation of greenhouse gas emissions to the biofuel and its co-products is done by using the energy allocation method. The results show that wherever a land use change default value for non-wood feedstocks is used, this value dominates by far all other emission sources. Default land use change emissions for pathways using wood as feedstock are minor (short rotation coppice) or negative (wood from existing forests). However, woody feedstocks require second-generation conversion technologies. The least emission intensive first-generation pathways are bioethanol from sugar cane in Mexico and Indonesia due to the high productivity of sugar cane and the simple conversion process. Due to the limited country-specific database, a differentiation between countries or regions could not clearly be made. Differentiation can rather be done for the importance of particular factors such as feedstock productivity in conjunction with fertiliser use, allocation of co-products or the energy demand of specific conversion technologies.