Hanson, Craig, and Janet Ranganathan. "INSIDER: Why Burning Trees for Energy Harms the Climate.". Insights. (1512518400)December 06, 2017. https://www.wri.org/...

Per unit of generated energy, CO₂ emissions from burning wood for heat can be 150% higher than from natural gas and 30% more than from coal.  Harvesting trees for energy releases carbon into the atmosphere that would otherwise have remained stored in the forest.  Harvesting trees also foregoes carbon sequestration had they continue growing.  It takes a long time to offset the increase in CO₂ emissions from burning wood for energy from the CO₂ absorbed by tree regrowth.  The EU is called upon to amend the Renewable Energy Directive to correct the erroneous definition of renewable biomass from forests.

Posted on 07/11/21