Does the Kyoto Protocol as an International Environmental Policy Promote Forest Carbon Sinks?

Under the background of carbon neutrality, the carbon sequestration of forest ecosystems is an important way to mitigate climate change. Forest could not only protect the environment but also an important industry for economic development. As an international climate policy that first recognized the role of forest carbon sinks on climate change, the question becomes, has the Kyoto Protocol promoted the development of forest carbon sinks in contracting parties? To explore this, data of forest can be obtained at the national level. Hence, data of economic, social, polity and climate in 147 countries is also collected. The generalized synthetic control method is adopted. The results show that the policy effect of the Kyoto Protocol was obvious and significant. Moreover, the effect was more significant after the enforcement in 2005. Especially after the first commitment period, the policy effect of the second period is more obvious. Some policy implications are drawn.

The economics of Forest Carbon Sequestration: A Bibliometric Analysis

Carbon sequestration in forests has increasingly captured the attention of scientists as a strategy for climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability. In this era of huge carbon emission, being a low-carbon and cost-effective technology, the economic analysis of forest carbon sequestration holds higher importance for the successful implementation and intended outcomes. This study elucidates a scientometric view of the research structure and thematic evolution of economic studies on forest carbon sequestration based on 1,439 articles over the time slice 2001-2021. The bibliographic data has been retrieved from the Dimensions database which accommodates a large coverage of research publications and also provides easy access to essential scholarly data and information. Vosviewer and Biblioshiny software tools have opted for visualization and evaluation purposes of bibliometric data. This study employs various measures of bibliometric analysis like co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, citation and keyword analysis to find out the principal articles, authors, journals, most frequent keywords and highest publishing countries and institutions in this field and the results show that the number of publications has escalated substantially in the last five years, Popp A, 2017 (305 citations) and André P C Faaij (11 documents) are the most cited article and the most productive author, respectively, Bradford’s law calculates 21 core journals out of total 503 journals among which Forest Policy and Economics is on the top, and the most productive country and institution are the USA and University of Florida, respectively. The study also investigates key publishing subject categories and the number of publications covered under each Sustainable Development Goals. The overall outcome of this bibliometric study confers an in-depth understanding of the various dimensions of economic analysis on forest carbon sequestration, its development pattern in the last 20 years and also provides emerging themes for future references.

Valuing the Impact of Forest Disturbances on the Climate Regulation Service of Western U.S. Forests

The protection and expansion of forest carbon sinks are critical to achieving climate-change mitigation targets. Yet, the increasing frequency and severity of forest disturbances challenge the sustainable provision of forest services. We investigated patterns of forest disturbances’ impacts on carbon sinks by combining spatial datasets of forest carbon sequestration from biomass growth and emissions from fire and bark beetle damage in the western United States (U.S.) and valued the social costs of forest carbon losses. We also examined potential future trends of forest carbon sinks under two climate-change projections using a global vegetation model. We found that forest carbon losses from bark-beetle damage were larger than emissions from fires between 2003 and 2012. The cumulative social costs of forest carbon losses ranged from USD 7 billion to USD 72 billion, depending on the severity of global warming and the discount rate. Forest carbon stocks could increase around 5% under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 or 7% under RCP 8.5 by 2091 relative to 2011 levels, mostly in forests with high net primary productivity. These results indicate that spatially explicit management of forest disturbances may increase forest carbon sinks, thereby improving opportunities to achieve critical climate-change mitigation goals.

Carbon Emission and Redistribution among Forest Carbon Pools, and Change in Soil Nutrient Content after Different Severities of Forest Fires in Northeast China

Forest fires are a significant factor that affects the boreal forest carbon distribution which emits carbon into the atmosphere and leads to carbon redistribution among carbon pools. However, knowledge about how much carbon was transferred among pools and the immediate changes in soil nutrient contents in areas that were burned by fires of various severities are still limited. In this study, we surveyed eight wildfire sites that are located in northeast China within three months after the fires occurred. Our results indicate that the total soil nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon contents significantly increased after moderate- and high-severity fires. The carbon emissions were 3.84, 5.14, and 12.86 Mg C/ha for low-, moderate-, and high-severity fires, respectively. The amount of carbon transferred among pools increased with fire severity except for the charcoal pool, storing the highest amounts of carbon in moderate-severity fires. Although the charcoal and ash pools accounted for a small proportion of the total ecosystem, they are important for biogeochemical cycles and are worthy of attention. The carbon redistribution information in our study is important for accurately estimating the forest carbon budget and providing crucial parameters for forest carbon cycling models to incorporate the carbon transfer process.

The economics of Forest Carbon Sequestration: A Bibliometric Analysis

Carbon sequestration in forests has increasingly captured the attention of scientists as a strategy for climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability. In this era of huge carbon emission, being a low-carbon and cost-effective technology, the economic analysis of forest carbon sequestration holds higher importance for the successful implementation and intended outcomes. This study elucidates a scientometric view of the research structure and thematic evolution of economic studies on forest carbon sequestration based on 1,439 articles over the time slice 2001-2021. The bibliographic data has been retrieved from the Dimensions database which accommodates a large coverage of research publications and also provides easy access to essential scholarly data and information. Vosviewer and Biblioshiny software tools have opted for visualization and evaluation purposes of bibliometric data. This study employs various measures of bibliometric analysis like co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, citation and keyword analysis to find out the principal articles, authors, journals, most frequent keywords and highest publishing countries and institutions in this field and the results show that the number of publications has escalated substantially in the last five years, Popp A, 2017 (305 citations) and André P C Faaij (11 documents) are the most cited article and the most productive author, respectively, Bradford’s law calculates 21 core journals out of total 503 journals among which Forest Policy and Economics is on the top, and the most productive country and institution are the USA and University of Florida, respectively. The study also investigates key publishing subject categories and the number of publications covered under each Sustainable Development Goals. The overall outcome of this bibliometric study confers an in-depth understanding of the various dimensions of economic analysis on forest carbon sequestration, its development pattern in the last 20 years and also provides emerging themes for future references.

What Is the Impact of Mass Timber Utilization on Climate and Forests?

As the need to address climate change grows more urgent, policymakers, businesses, and others are seeking innovative approaches to remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Forests can play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon. However, there is disagreement over whether forests are most effective in reducing carbon emissions when left alone versus managed for sustainable harvesting and wood product production. Cross-laminated timber is at the forefront of the mass timber movement, which is enabling designers, engineers, and other stakeholders to build taller wood buildings. Several recent studies have shown that substituting mass timber for steel and concrete in mid-rise buildings can reduce the emissions associated with manufacturing, transporting, and installing building materials by 13%-26.5%. However, the prospect of increased utilization of wood products as a climate solution also raises questions about the impact of increased demand for wood on forest carbon stocks, on forest condition, and on the provision of the many other critical social and environmental benefits that healthy forests can provide. A holistic assessment of the total climate impact of forest product demand across product substitution, carbon storage in materials, current and future forest carbon stock, and forest area and condition is challenging, but it is important to understand the impact of increased mass timber utilization on forests and climate, and therefore also on which safeguards might be necessary to ensure positive outcomes. To thus assess the potential impacts, both positive and negative, of greater mass timber utilization on forests ecosystems and emissions associated with the built environment, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) initiated a global mass timber impact assessment (GMTIA), a five-part, highly collaborative research program focused on understanding the potential benefits and risks of increased demand for mass timber products on forests and identifying appropriate safeguards to ensure positive outcomes.

The Missing Limb: Including Impacts of Biomass Extraction on Forest Carbon Stocks in GHG Balances of Wood Use

The global carbon neutrality challenge places a spotlight on forests as carbon sinks. However, greenhouse gas (GHG) balances of wood for material and energy use often reveal GHG emission savings in comparison with a non-wood reference. Is it thus better to increase wood production and use, or to conserve and expand the carbon stock in forests? GHG balances of wood products mostly ignore the dynamics of carbon storage in forests, which can be expressed as the carbon storage balance in forests (CSBF). For Germany, a CSBF of 0.25 to 1.15 t CO2/m³ wood can be assumed. When the CSBF is integrated into the GHG balance, GHG mitigation substantially deteriorates and wood products may even turn into a GHG source, e.g. in the case of energy wood. Here, building up the forest carbon sink would be the better option. We conclude that it is vital to include the CSBF in GHG balances of wood products if the wood is extracted from forests. Only then can GHG balances provide political decision-makers and stakeholders in the wood sector with a complete picture of GHG emissions.