Wood is not COâ‚‚-neutral Wood burning is politically defined as carbon neutral because trees accumulate almost same amount of CO2 throughout their lifetime as the amount released when wood is burned. In other words, assuming that the reforestation is adequate and that wood is burned as slow as the growth of new trees, wood burning does not lead to net increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. However, in practice this means that if you cut down a fully-grown 60-year-old tree then you need to plant a new tree and slowly burn the wood over 60 years as the new three grows up. Since the wood would be burned much quicker in a stove this would cause a net accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere for decades thereby contribute significantly to global warming. In the short run, the direct CO2-emissions from chimneys in homes heated with wood are larger than if the same houses burned fossil fuels. However, the solution is neither wood nor fossil fuels but energy efficient buildings heated with real carbon neutral energy. Forests, forest floors and trees should be seen as a solid permanent carbon sink and storage increasing biodiversity and protecting groundwater and surface water from agricultural pollution. Increased use of wood as high value building material providing long-term storage of CO2 - and as well replacing CO2-intenPOLLUTION FROM RESIDENTIAL BURNING
Wood burning is not CO2-neutral and can prevent energy efficient homes
sive building materials – would be climate efficient. Waste biomass from forestry and sawmills should not be burned but used to create high value products and fuels as input to sectors where there are limited renewable alternatives. Cheap wood makes it unattractive to insulate buildings, replace old windows, and to use cleaner heat sources (cf. page 25). Thereby, cheap wood burning prevents the transition towards a climate-neutral low emission society with clean air.
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CLIMATE IMPACT
