La neutralité carbone du bois énergie: Un concept trompeur?

Abstract

Using wood as fuel - a time-honoured practice - does not appear to raise any issues when implemented on an industrial scale, due to the deep-anchored conviction that forest biomass is carbon neutral in terms of the greenhouse effect. However the role of forests and their timber products as a source of fuel energy and as a carbon sink is contradictory: while timber can be kept for a long time without being degraded, it cannot retain the carbon it borrowed from the atmosphere if it is burned. Using it instead of fossil fuels does not reduce carbon dioxide emissions because its emissions factor (CO2 by weight emitted per unit of heat produced) is higher. This shows that the concept of "carbon neutrality" is misleading because it fails to consider, among alternative choices, the possibility of keeping the wood for a prolonged period so as to meet climate change criteria.