Category Archives: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

DENMARK — In a larger narrative about this year’s Olympics being the most sustainable Olympics ever, the organizers highlight a number of climate initiatives that I, as Dean of Sustainability at DTU, am excited about. These include beds made from recycled cardboard, audience seats made from recycled plastic, the decision not to build new buildings and a 100 per cent connection to the electricity grid instead of polluting diesel generators. What a great story! And yet – it’s far more complex than that. The announcements from Paris have been met with criticism from both scientists and NGOs. The criticism relates to the organizers’ main message that the many initiatives, combined with the purchase of carbon offsets, mean that this year’s Olympics will be half that of previous years. …I find it frustrating that initiatives that could inspire change around the world are drowned in a negative debate.

UNITED KINGDOM — Unsettled weather patterns have become the norm across the UK via a barrage of storms, relentless rain, and cold temperatures extending into Q2 of this year. Finally, everyone heaved a sigh of relief as we began to see warmer temperatures arrive around mid-May. But even these sporadic mini heat waves were accompanied by chilly mornings, leading homeowners across the country to keep a keen eye on their thermostats. Amid this uncertainty, and worries about energy costs,  heating solutions in the domestic setting need to be energy efficient and flexible. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that more and more people are turning to solid fuel appliances as a heating alternative. Part or full-home heating with wood or pellet burning provides homes with a degree of fuel independence, and is, therefore, well suited to those in rural and off-grid locations. 

UK — Older oak trees are able to accelerate their rates of absorbing planet-warming emissions, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found. A forest of mature oak trees was exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for seven years and in response, the trees increased their production of wood – locking in the greenhouse gas and preventing it from warming the planet. The researchers hope the study, published in Nature Climate Change, will demonstrate the importance of protecting mature forests for tackling climate change. …The results of this latest study come from the University of Birmingham’s giant Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment, which Prof Rob MacKenzie has headed since its inception in 2016. FACE is located at a 52-acre forest in Staffordshire. Within the site is a group of 180-year-old English oak trees. …After seven years the trees produced nearly 10% more wood.

The German Government is preparing to introduce a CO2 fee on energy derived from wood, including biomass. This is according to the latest yet unpublished draft of the “National Biomass Strategy” from February 2024, as reported by “Welt am Sonntag”. …This document pays particular attention to developing a strategy that includes applying a CO2 factor for woody biomass. Germany plans to develop a concept by 2025 that will adequately reflect the impact of the energetic use of woody biomass on the climate, especially at the European level. As part of this strategy, the introduction of a realistic and appropriate CO2 factor for the combustion of woody biomass is being considered. …Until now, wood was considered a climate-neutral, renewable fuel. Martin Bentele, the managing director of the German Association for Wood Energy and Pellets, has announced that he will consider taking legal action, arguing that “whoever made this decision must reckon with legal consequences.”

Earth’s string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end in July as the natural El Nino climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced Thursday. But … scientists said the end of the record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by climate change. “The overall context hasn’t changed,” Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess said. “Our climate continues to warm.” Human-caused climate change drives extreme weather events that are wreaking havoc around the globe. …During July, the world was 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer, by Copernicus’ measurement, than pre-industrial times. That’s close to the warming limit that nearly all the countries in the world agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate agreement: 1.5 degrees. …“Things are going to continue to get worse because we haven’t stopped doing the thing that’s making them worse,” said Gavin Schmidt, climatologist and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies

UK — The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report. The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain’s single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember. The figures show that Drax, which has received billions in subsidies since it began switching from coal to biomass in 2012, was responsible for 11.5m tonnes of CO2 last year, or nearly 3% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Drax produced four times more carbon dioxide than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, which is due to close in September.

Thanks to effective forest protection and development, particularly large timber plantations meeting FSC standards, Na Hau Nature Reserve in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai now meets the criteria for exporting carbon credits, promising significant future revenue for the state. The Na Hau Nature Reserve in Van Yen district, Yen Bai province, spans 16,950 hectares of core area and nearly 10,000 hectares of buffer zone, housing a rich ecosystem of flora and fauna. The preservation efforts of the Mong community have kept these primeval forests lush and green. Beyond the Na Hau Nature Reserve, Van Yen district has nearly 94,000 hectares of forest, including almost 40,000 hectares of natural forest and over 54,000 hectares of planted forest, with a forest cover rate exceeding 67%. This presents a significant opportunity for the district to expand its forest status database, rehabilitate degraded forests, and move towards forest carbon credit exports.

Even in Earth’s high northern-latitude forest, climate change is predicted to make wildfires more frequent and severe. Earth’s far north hosts the boreal forest, a vast green belt that stretches from North America to Siberia. The boreal forest is one of the world’s largest CO₂ sinks. Over the past few thousand years it has removed around 1 trillion tonnes of carbon from the air, storing it in the trees and soil. Because of the large amount of carbon stored in the boreal forest, fires here can release much more CO₂ into the air than forest fires elsewhere, amplifying climate change. Wildfires release lots of climate-warming CO₂ while they rage. But our research in the European part of this forest has shown that the forest’s CO₂ sink recovers slowly, with the burnt area continuing to release CO₂ for several years after the fires die. This exceeds the amount of CO₂ produced from the fire itself.

Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in Canada or plantations in Vietnam. Biomass importers and users in Japan are being forced to reevaluate their supply chains after U.S. wood pellet producer Enviva declared bankruptcy in March and prominent ecologists visiting Japan from Canada warned of the pellets’ environmental risks. In addition, new biomass policies from Japan’s biggest banks emphasize the importance of sustainable sourcing, which forest advocates say they hope will encourage biomass users to improve their practices. But, forest advocates argue burning wood to generate electricity is fundamentally untenable, as it puts CO₂into the atmosphere despite the need to reduce emissions.

Forestry Australia is leading an Australian initiative to expand Australia’s carbon credits across all native forest tenures, including State forests, private native forests, forests managed by Traditional Owners, national parks and conservation reserves. The proposal is a forest-sector-led submission to the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee. This model is based on a growing body of published work that shows forests that are actively managed can have greater carbon potential. …The proposed project activities under Enhancing Native Forest method can be grouped into three groups:

• Restorative forestry practices: projects that restore ecological health and carbon through forest restoration and regenerative forestry practices.
• Adaptive harvesting practices: projects that reduce carbon emissions and improve carbon storage in forests currently available for timber harvesting.
• Improved utilisation of harvested wood products: projects that shift the production of lower grade logs for short-lived wood products into higher grade logs and long-lived wood products.

Microbes in the bark of trees play a vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere, scientists have discovered. The greenhouse gas is a product of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels and is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. However, it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time. Methane has been responsible for about 30% of global heating since preindustrial times, with emissions currently rising at their fastest rate since the 1980s. The study by the University of Birmingham investigated methane absorption levels in upland tropical forests in the Amazon and Panama; temperate broadleaf trees in Wytham Woods in Oxfordshire in the UK; and boreal coniferous forest trees in Sweden. … Prof Vincent Gauci said: “Our results suggest that planting more trees, and reducing deforestation must be important parts of any approach towards the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade.”

From hiking through crocodile-infested habitats to traversing mountains and flying a helicopter to the side of a cliff, it would be easy to think Brendan Espe was trying to be the next Bear Grylls. But he isn’t in the game of extreme adventure like the British TV presenter. Instead, he is looking for the rare plants that he believes could help humanity survive climate change. An environmental officer for James Cook University, Mr Espe curates the living collection of plants and animals on the Townsville campus, with a particular focus on endangered species. …In an unassuming building in Canberra, millions of native seeds sourced by people like Mr Espe are carefully stored to stay viable for hundreds of years. National Seed Bank manager Lydia Guja said it was a vital resource for the continuation of many species, as well as identifying those that could adapt to climate change.

PORTEL, Brazil — Over the past two decades, a new financial commodity known as carbon credits has become one of the world’s most important tools in the fight against climate change. …The Amazon rainforest…has increasingly drawn those pursuing carbon credits. …“carbon cowboys” have launched preservation projects generating carbon credits worth hundreds of millions of dollars; purchased by some of the world’s largest corporations. The projects have helped transform the Brazilian Amazon into an epicenter of a largely unaccountable global industry with sales of nearly $11 billion. But a Washington Post investigation shows that many of the private ventures have repeatedly and, authorities say, illegally laid claim to publicly protected lands, generating enormous profits from territory they have no legal right to and then failing to share the revenue with those who protected or lived on the land. The use of such lands to sell credits also contributes little to reducing carbon emissions. [full access to the story requires a Washington Post subscription]

LONDON — Sunday, July 21 was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The global average surface air temperature on Sunday reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 F) — slightly higher than the previous record set last July of 17.08 C (62.74 F). Heatwaves have scorched large swathes of the United States, Europe and Russia over the past week. Last year saw four days in a row break the record, from July 3 through July 6, as climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, drove extreme heat across the Northern Hemisphere. Every month since June 2023 – 13 months in a row – has now ranked as the planet’s hottest since records began, compared with the corresponding month in previous years, Copernicus said.

The New Zealand Government is no longer on track to meet its third emissions budget, according to projections released with its draft Emissions Reduction Plan. More work is needed to meet New Zealand’s Paris commitments, which will likely result in billions of dollars being sent offshore to pay for international climate mitigation. …Under new projections, which incorporate decisions the new Government has made to bin a host of Labour-era policies, the government will sail 17 Mt CO2-e above that third budget, which runs from 2031–35. …The Government said it was keen to harness private investment to plant trees on Crown land. …“Estimates of the area of Crown land that is suitable for planting are preliminary and conservative. Further analysis will be required to confirm land suitability; however, it is likely that more land is available, and the potential abatement is greater than currently projected,” the plan said.

Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo — Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s opening remarks for the ceremony of the first International Conference on Afforestation and Reforestation, in Brazzaville today: We congratulate President Denis Sassou Nguesso for his vision on afforestation and reforestation launched in 2022, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s twenty-seventh Climate Change Conference, in Sharm el Sheikh, and the fruition of his initiative in this gathering.  You have given life to your ambitious vision. The outcomes of your Conference give impetus to decisive and collective actions to confront the global loss of forests and biodiversity, with the charge to spearhead a green and just transition for the benefit of all. Today, our promises in the Paris Agreement are in crisis; the 1.5°C world we need is in the emergency room.  Our ecosystems are being threatened.