A synthesis of research on wood products and greenhouse gas impacts /

Numerous international studies are reviewed for findings on fossil energy used in wood manufacturing compared to alternatives, the avoidance of industrial process carbon emissions as from cement manufacturing, the storage of carbon in forests and forest products, the use of wood by-products as a biofuel replacement for fossil fuels, and carbon storage and emission due to forest products in landfil [...] These include: the fossil energy used to manufacture wood products compared with alternative materials; the avoidance of industrial process carbon emissions such as in cement manufacturing; the physical storage of carbon in forests and wood materials; the use of wood by-products as biofuel to replace fossil fuels; and the possible carbon sequestration in, and methane emissions from, wood products [...] The climatic significance of carbon storage in wood products depends on the dynamics of the products pool as a whole, i.e., whether the total quantity of stored carbon is increasing, decreasing or is stable. [...] In the long term as the stock of products stabilizes at a higher level, wood products provide a stable pool of carbon as new wood entering the pool is balanced by old wood leaving the pool, with climate benefits accruing from the substitution effects of avoided emissions. [...] Temporal system boundaries include such aspects of the wood life cycle as the dynamics of forest growth including regeneration and carbon saturation, the availability of residue biofuels at different times, and the duration of carbon storage in products.