Carbon footprint of the forest and its wood uses

Carbon footprint of the forest and its wood uses

Huella de carbono del bosque y del uso de la madera

Empreinte carbone de la forêt et de l’utilisation de son bois

Philippe Leturcq (1)

1 Chercheur et professeur retraité

A commonly held idea states that replacing fossil fuels and energy-intensive materials with wood is a better strategy than carbon storage in forests for mitigating climate change This opinion stems from the assertion of “biomass carbon neutrality” to which the forestry and energy policies of many countries wrongly refer, especially in Europe The objections of many scientists have remained ineffective so far, possibly due to the lack of a sufficiently simple and understandable-by-all description of the true carbon footprint of harvested wood products Based on basic knowledge, this article shows that increasing wood harvesting and its uses is counterproductive as regards climate change mitigation goals, especially when wood is used as fuel.

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Philippe Leturcq. Empreinte carbone de la forêt et de l’utilisation de son bois. Revue forestière française, 2020, 72 (6), pp.525-537. ⟨10.20870/revforfr.2020.5348⟩. ⟨hal-03330839⟩