Global climate impacts of forest bioenergy
What, when and how to measure
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15548216 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francesco Cherubini (0000-0002-7147-4292, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, corresponding author), Ryan M Bright (0000-0001-8553-5570, Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Anders Hammer Strømman (0000-0003-2987-5583, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 014049-014049 |
| Publication date | 2013-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014049 |
| OpenAlex | W2064462870 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 71 |
Environmental impact studies of forest bioenergy systems usually account for CO2 emissions and removals and identify the so-called carbon debt of bioenergy through comparison with a reference system. This approach is based on a simple sum of fluxes and does not consider any direct physical impact or climate system response. Other recent applications go one step further and elaborate impulse response functions (IRFs) and subsequent metrics for biogenic CO2 emissions that are compatible with the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. However, a thorough discussion about the role of the different metrics in the interpretation of the climate impacts of forest bioenergy systems is still missing. In this work, we assess a single LCA dataset of selected bioenergy systems using different emission metrics based on cumulative CO2 emissions, radiative forcing and global surface temperature. We consider both absolute and normalized metrics for single pulses and sustained emissions. The key challenges are the choice of end point (emissions, concentration, radiative forcing, change in temperature, etc), the type of measure (instantaneous or time-integrated) and the treatment of time. Bioenergy systems usually perform better than fossil counterparts if assessed with instantaneous metrics, including global surface temperature change, and in some cases can give a net global cooling effect in the short term. The analysis of sustained, or continuous emissions, also shows that impacts from bioenergy systems are generally reversible, while those from fossil fuels are permanent.\n\nAs shown in this study, the metric choice can have a large influence on the results. The dominant role traditionally assigned to cumulative metrics in LCA studies and climate impact accounting schemes should therefore be reconsidered, because such metrics can fail to capture important time dependences unique to the biomass system under analysis (to which instantaneous metrics are well suited)
Bioenergy · Carbon cycle · Climate change · Climatology · Economics · Ecosystem · Forcing (mathematics · Fossil fuel · Greenhouse gas · Life-cycle assessment · Production (economics · Radiative forcing · Renewable energy · Bioenergy crop production and management · Environmental Impact and Sustainability · Environmental Science · Forest Management and Policy · Ecology · Geology
Bioenergy and climate change mitigation
Enhancing climate impact assessment with surface albedo effects of land cover changes
Bridging the gap between impact assessment methods and climate science
Social Cost of Forcing
Carbon, climate, and economic breakeven times for biofuel from woody biomass from managed forests
Consistent quantification of climate impacts due to biogenic carbon storage across a range of bio-product systems
Stabilizing climate requires near‐zero emissions
Alternatives to the Global Warming Potential for Comparing Climate Impacts of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases
Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system
Emulating coupled atmosphere-ocean and carbon cycle models with a simpler model, Magicc6 – Part 1
Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt
The proportionality of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions
Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks
Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment
Global Warming Potential of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Biomass Stored in the Anthroposphere and Used for Bioenergy at End of Life
Accounting for carbon cycle feedbacks in a comparison of the global warming effects of greenhouse gases
The integrated global temperature change potential (iGTP) and relationships between emission metrics
Future changes in global warming potentials under representative concentration pathways
Site-specific global warming potentials of biogenic CO 2 for bioenergy
A unifying framework for metrics for aggregating the climate effect of different emissions
On the potential for alternative greenhouse gas equivalence metrics to influence sectoral mitigation patterns
Coupled climate–carbon simulations indicate minor global effects of wars and epidemics on atmospheric CO 2 between ad 800 and 1850
Climate impacts of bioenergy
Goodbye to carbon neutral
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.46 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |