Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/192619 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Papers No. 637
Publisher: 
Statistics Norway, Research Department, Oslo
Abstract: 
Owing to the extensive critique of food-crop-based biofuels, attention and hopes have turned toward second-generation wood-based biofuels. An important question is therefore whether wood from boreal forests could serve as a source for biofuels. However, in a typical boreal forest, it takes 70-120 years before a stand of trees is mature. If this time lag and the real dynamics of the carbon stock of boreal forests more generally are taken into account, it becomes necessary to reconsider the potential mitigation effects of the increased use of wood fuels from boreal forests. This paper finds that the increased harvest of a boreal forest creates a biofuel carbon debt that takes 150-230 years to repay.
Subjects: 
forestry
greenhouse gas emissions
bioenergy
carbon neutrality
JEL: 
Q23
Q42
Q54
Q58
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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