The GHG contribution of the cascaded use of harvested wood products in comparison with the use of wood for energy—A case study on available forest resources in Canada

Published Date
Environmental Science & Policy
August 2013, Vol.31:96–108, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2013.03.007

• Author 

• Richard Sikkema ^a,b,,,
• Martin Junginger ^a
• Paul McFarlane ^c
• André Faaij ^a

• aUtrecht University, Copernicus Institute, Heidelberglaan 2, NL-3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
• bControl Union Certifications, Zwolle, The Netherlands
• cUniversity of British Columbia, Department of Wood Science, Vancouver, Canada

Received 13 September 2012. Revised 18 March 2013. Accepted 20 March 2013. Available online 3 May 2013. 

Highlights

• Evaluation of new HWP accounting method leads to significant GHG emission reduction for Canada.
• •
  Use of harvested wood for energy and of construction lead to largest GHG savings.
• •
  A cascade-use for wood and paper products is paramount for further GHG improvement.
• •
  The end-of-life effect of using recycled waste wood for energy is delayed due to longer carbon uptake.
• •
  Cradle-to-cradle utilization of wood waste has an underdeveloped reduction potential.

Summary

Some Parties (Countries) to the UNFCCC decided to include the carbon uptake by harvested wood products (HWP) in a new general accounting framework after 2012 (post Kyoto). The analysis aims to make a comparison between the cascaded use of HWP and the use of wood for energy. We combine the new HWP framework with an assumed increased 50 million m³ harvest level in Canada and evaluate the impact of the GHG emissions over a 100-year period. Our reference case assumes all harvested wood is an immediate CO₂ emission (IPCC default) and no substitution effects, i.e. annual GHG emissions of 41 million tonnes CO_2eq. In our wood utilization scenario's, harvested trees are allocated (in varying shares) to three end-products: construction wood, paper products and pellets for power production. In comparison with our base case, a combination of fossil fuel substitution, material substitution and temporary carbon uptake by HWP leads to significant decreases in GHG emissions. All scenario's show annual GHG emission between 18 and 21 million tonnes CO_2eqexcept for triple use without recycling (at least 24 million tonnes CO_2eq). We conclude that GHG emissions of our scenarios are substantially lower than IPCC default. However, it is difficult to incorporate one single method to account for GHG uptake and emissions by HWP, due to end use efficiency and recycling options. Further GHG allocation over individual countries is not straightforward and needs further research.

Keywords

Canada

Managed forest

Harvested wood products

Cascade

Cradle-to-cradle utilization

Carbon footprint

Energy wood

---

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

 Table 1

Table 1.

 Table 2

Table 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

 Table 3

Table 3.

• DOCX (21K)

• DOCX (15K)

• DOCX (32K)

• DOCX (28K)

• *
  Corresponding author at: Utrecht University, Copernicus Institute, Heidelberglaan 2, NL-3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113000658