A New Way of Counting Carbon Emissions

Bioenergy is set to become the next big thing in the drive for a sustainable, low-carbon energy future. Companies and governments alike are driven by the global commitment to phase out coal, cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and achieve “net-zero” by 2050 to limit the impact of climate change for generations to come.

When evaluating any climate change mitigation solution, it all comes down to the input versus the output. For example, when looking at renewable energy options, a persistent question arises—when are the emissions at the stack offset by the operations? As it relates to bioenergy, power providers often want to know—when are stack emissions offset by forest growth?

All wood used to produce bioenergy needs to pass a litmus test: are the carbon stocks on the forest landscape where the wood is sourced going up or staying the same over time? If stocks are stable or increasing, that means the amount of wood and carbon in that landscape are steady (i.e., growing year over year) while sustainable harvests are occurring on the same landscape.When sourced from regions where forest stocks are stable or increasing, bioenergy can reduce a power producer’s lifecycle GHG emissions by more than 85 percent compared to coal and by more than 70 percent when compared to natural gas.

Some argue that wood bioenergy only has a net climate benefit after decades of the replanted trees growing back, but that is based on a narrow view that the forest carbon stocks are measured by individual stands of trees. This limited view is called stand-level accounting and it is fundamentally flawed because it doesn’t consider the fact that harvests occur across a dynamic landscape and that regrowth occurs along with individual harvests. More accurately, landscape-level accounting captures the integrated effect of all the simultaneous harvest and regrowth events occurring within a forest landscape.

In today’s net-zero-focused world, we can’t wait for carbon to be captured later; we must apply reliable, effective solutions today

Take for example the U.S. Southeast. The region is a plentiful forest landscape made up of millions of acres of individual tree stands, which each play their part in capturing and storing carbon emissions. In this region, approximately 3 percent of forest area is harvested to produce multiple wood products each year, while there is continued regrowth and sequestration across the remaining 97 percent of the landscape that is not harvested. In fact, in the U.S. Southeast—where one[1]fifth of the wood used annually around the world is produced— forests have steadily grown by 40 percent over the last 25 years and private landowners have been managing, harvesting, and reharvesting working forests for generations.

Therefore, the wood sourced from a growing, working forest landscape provides an immediate carbon benefit because the forest that is not being harvested, is in various stages of regrowth, capturing more carbon each year than is released during an annual harvest.

This all sounds ideal, but you might be asking—“how do utility and power providers ensure their fuel feedstock is coming from sustainable sourcing regions?”

Good question. Utility and power providers should only work with companies that are transparent in their reporting and routinely monitor, track, and publish data on the origins of their feedstock. If possible, the renewable energy companies providing the data should have their sourcing policies and procedures verified by an independent auditor to ensure accuracy and transparency to customers.

In order to achieve climate targets by 2050, individuals, companies, and governments alike must remain committed to the highest standards of sustainability, integrity, and forest stewardship. In today’s net-zero-focused world, we can’t wait for carbon to be captured later; we must apply reliable, effective solutions today.