Wood and Paper Products and Carbon Storage: CDM as An Effective Tool

Abstract

This study provides historical estimates and projections of U.S. carbon sequestered in wood and paper products and compares them to amounts sequestered in U.S. forests. There are large pools of carbon in forests, in wood and paper products in use, and in dumps and landfills. The size of these carbon pools is increasing. Since 1910, an estimated 2.7 Pg (petagrams; × 109 metric tons) of carbon have accumulated and currently reside in wood and paper products in use and in dumps and landfills, including net imports. This is notable compared with the current inventory of carbon in forest trees (13.8 Pg) and forest soils (24.7 Pg). On a yearly basis, net sequestration of carbon in U.S. wood and paper products (additions including net imports, minus emissions from decay and burning each year) is projected to increase from 61 Tg/year in 1990 to 74 Tg/year by 2040, while net additions (sequestration) in forests is projected to decrease from 274 to 161 Tg/year. Net sequestration is increasing in products and landfills because of an increase in wood consumption and a decrease in decay in landfills compared with phased-out dumps. If the total projected amount of products required is regarded as fixed, the net carbon sequestration in products and landfills can be increased by 1) shifting product mix to a greater proportion of lignincontaining products, which decay less in landfills; 2) increasing product recycling; 3) increasing product use-life; and 4) increasing landfill CH4 burning in place of fossil fuels.