Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Welcome to the Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate library. It has been brought together by the Forest, Climate and Biomass Action Network of the Environmental Paper Network. We want activists, communities, scholars – anyone who’s interested in forest biomass issues – to be able to find all the key resources in one place. So we’ve gathered together key resources that present case studies and explain the science behind biomass energy and its impacts on forests and climate.

If you have any suggestions for resources we should have in this library or any comments about it, please contact us. You may also find our Frequently Asked Questions helpful.

Understanding the importance of primary tropical forest protection as a mitigation strategy

Given the short time-frame to limit global warming, and the current emissions gap, it is criticalto prioritise mitigation actions. To date, scant attention has been paid to the mitigation benefits of primary forest protection. In this paper we estimate tropical forest ecosystem carbon stocks and flows.

New Report Shows Wood Pellets from Drax’s U.S. Mills Increase Carbon Emissions During the Timeframe Necessary to Address Climate Change

A new report by Spatial Informatics Group, LLC (SIG), commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the National Wildlife Federation, takes a closer look at the carbon profile of wood pellets produced at Drax’s three U.S. wood pellet mills. Building on previous studies, SIG conducted a carbon life-cycle assessment tailored to Drax’s presumed wood sourcing for these mills. SIG found that the accumulated emissions of burning wood pellets from these mills to produce electricity in the UK increases carbon pollution in the atmosphere for more than 40 years, well beyond the timeframe identified by the IPCC as critical for carbon reduction.

Papers on GHG emissions from bioenergy related land-use

This is a list of papers on GHG emissions from bioenergy related land-use. The list is not complete, and will most likely be updated in future in order to make it more thorough and more representative.

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Organization: AGW Observer

Author: Various

Date: 2014

Location: Worldwide

Language: English

Type of resource: List

Topics: Climate, Land use

Projected gains and losses of wildlife habitat from bioenergy-induced landscape change

With results from a forest economics model, spatially explicit state-and-transition simulation models, and species–habitat models, we projected change in habitat amount for 16 wildlife species caused by meeting a renewable fuel target and expected demand for wood pellets in North Carolina, USA.

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Organization: Wiley online library

Author: Nathan M. Tarr et al

Date: 2016

Location: North America, United States

Language: English

Type of resource: Academic article

Topics: Forests and Biodiversity, Land use

Recycle, Bury, or Burn Wood Waste Biomass?: LCA Answer Depends on Carbon Accounting, Emissions Controls, Displaced Fuels, and Impact Costs

This study extends existing life cycle assessment (LCA) literature by assessing seven environmental burdens and an overall monetized environmental score for eight recycle, bury, or burn options to manage clean wood wastes generated at construction and demolition activity sites.

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Organization: Journal of Industrial Ecology

Author: Jeffrey Morris

Date: 2016

Location: Worldwide

Language: English

Type of resource: Academic article

Topics: Climate, Sustainable energy

Range and uncertainties in estimating delays in greenhouse gas mitigation potential of forest bioenergy sourced from Canadian forests

Accurately assessing the delay before the substitution of fossil fuel by forest bioenergy starts having a net beneficial impact on atmospheric CO2 is becoming important as the cost of delaying GHG emission reductions is increasingly being recognized. We documented the time to carbon (C) parity of forest bioenergy sourced from different feedstocks (harvest residues, salvaged trees, and green trees), typical of forest biomass production in Canada, used to replace three fossil fuel types (coal, oil, and natural gas) in heating or power generation.

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Organization: GCB Bioenergy

Author: Jérôme Laganière et al

Date: 2015

Location: North America

Language: English

Type of resource: Academic article

Topics: Carbon accounting

Thinning Combined With Biomass Energy Production May Increase, Rather Than Reduce, Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Thinning and energy production from biomass are being increasingly implemented in the Western U.S. as a “win-win” approach to reducing fire risk and replacing fossil fuels. Yet questions and uncertainty about ecological impacts and carbon neutrality are highlighted in recent research.

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Organization: Geos Institute

Author: D.A. DellaSala and M. Koopman

Date: 2015

Location: North America

Language: English

Type of resource: Report

Topics: Climate

How certain are greenhouse gas reductions from bioenergy? Life cycle assessment and uncertainty analysis of wood pellet-to-electricity supply chains from forest residues

This research examines the combustion of wood pellets from forest residues to generate electricity and considers uncertainties related to GHG emissions arising at different points within the supply chain.

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Organization: Biomass and Bioenergy Journal

Author: Mirjam Röder et.al

Date: 2015

Location: Worldwide

Language: English

Type of resource: academic article

Topics: Climate

Quantifying consequences of removing harvesting residues on forest soils and tree growth – A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis looks at the impacts of ‘whole tree harvesting’, which is increasingly practised for bioenergy, on soil nutrients and future tree growth and finds serious negative impacts.

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Organization: Forest Ecology and Management

Author: D.L. Achat et al

Date: 2015

Location: Worldwide

Language: English

Type of resource: academic article

Topics: Forests and Biodiversity