The Charcoal Project

Is a forest a carbon sink or a source of low-carbon energy?

A number of new scientific studies have been released examining whether and how forests, forest management practices, forest products, and bioenergy from forests either contribute to or help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration and emissions.

One report states that “growing more forests and keeping forests as forests are only part of the solution, because focusing solely on the sequestration benefits of the forests misses the important (and substantial) carbon storage and substitution GHG benefits of harvested forest products, as well as other benefits of active forest management.”

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Greenpeace Canada: Biomass energy is a real “Biomess”

Greenpeace Canada just released a report that questions the country’s current wood energy industry, its practices, and its impact on the environment and climate change. The report suggests that “burning woody biomass on an industrial scale could severely harm Canada’s public forests and further contribute to the global climate crisis.” 

Read the report and tell us what YOU think!

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NEWS: Brazil to sell wood pellets to European utilities for power generation

“…Europe is seeking to generate 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020, and converting Brazilian wood into easily transportable pellets may help the region reach it’s goal,…

“Demand in Europe for biomass is very big. Many old coal-fired thermoelectric plants are making the decision to co-fire with biomass to extend their lives, principally in England.”

So, why can’t African nations do the same?

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Wood Energy in Africa: the next gold rush?

Recent news out of Uganda about the displacement of tens of thousands of people from their land to make way for a large-scale biofuel plantations raises question about governmental oversight and corporate social responsibility on the part of of foreign investors.

It is all the more urgent that African nations, with the help of appropriate international agencies, begin putting place the regulatory framework that will lead to the responsible and sustainable exploitation of wood energy resources in the context of low-carbon economic growth and high-value export generation.

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PCIA bulletin: Biogas for Household & Institutional Use

The PCIA latest bulletin focuses on biogas for both household and institutional use, and presents the local, national and regional-level efforts to promote its use in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Biogas-promoting organizations with decades of experience share their strategies for partnership-building, education and training, innovative solutions to financing, and marketing biogas’s added benefits.

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