Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy'
We respond to Prisley et al's (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 128002) critique of Sterman et al (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 015007), which found that using wood to produce electricity can worsen climate change at least through 2100, even if wood displaces coal. The result arises because (1) wood...
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IOP Publishing
2019
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121084 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7476-6760 |
| _version_ | 1811086423539843072 |
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| author | Siegel, Lori Sterman, John Rooney-Varga, Juliette N |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Siegel, Lori Sterman, John Rooney-Varga, Juliette N |
| author_sort | Siegel, Lori |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We respond to Prisley et al's (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 128002) critique of Sterman et al (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 015007), which found that using wood to produce electricity can worsen climate change at least through 2100, even if wood displaces coal. The result arises because (1) wood generates more CO₂/kWh than coal, creating an initial carbon debt; (2) regrowth of harvested land can remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, but takes time and is not certain; and (3) until the carbon debt is repaid, atmospheric CO₂ is higher, increasing radiative forcing and worsening climate change long after the initial carbon debt is repaid by new growth. We correct several errors in Prisley et al's critique, and show that our results are robust to the harvest and land management practices they prefer. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:25:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/121084 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:25:41Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1210842022-10-01T15:14:15Z Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' Siegel, Lori Sterman, John Rooney-Varga, Juliette N Sloan School of Management Sterman, John Rooney-Varga, Juliette N We respond to Prisley et al's (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 128002) critique of Sterman et al (2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 015007), which found that using wood to produce electricity can worsen climate change at least through 2100, even if wood displaces coal. The result arises because (1) wood generates more CO₂/kWh than coal, creating an initial carbon debt; (2) regrowth of harvested land can remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, but takes time and is not certain; and (3) until the carbon debt is repaid, atmospheric CO₂ is higher, increasing radiative forcing and worsening climate change long after the initial carbon debt is repaid by new growth. We correct several errors in Prisley et al's critique, and show that our results are robust to the harvest and land management practices they prefer. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DUE-124558) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (grant ICER-1701062) 2019-03-26T11:30:26Z 2019-03-26T11:30:26Z 2018-12 2018-11 2019-02-28T18:19:13Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1748-9326 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121084 Sterman, John D, Lori Siegel, and Juliette N Rooney-Varga. “Reply to Comment on ‘Does Replacing Coal with Wood Lower CO2 Emissions? Dynamic Lifecycle Analysis of Wood Bioenergy.’” Environmental Research Letters 13, no. 12 (December 18, 2018): 128003. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7476-6760 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf354 Environmental Research Letters Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing IOP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Siegel, Lori Sterman, John Rooney-Varga, Juliette N Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title | Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title_full | Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title_fullStr | Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title_short | Reply to comment on ‘Does replacing coal with wood lower CO₂ emissions? Dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy' |
| title_sort | reply to comment on does replacing coal with wood lower co₂ emissions dynamic lifecycle analysis of wood bioenergy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121084 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7476-6760 |
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