The Fairy Tale of Climate-Neutral Wood
Wood (including pellets) is in the vast majority of cases the worst energy source and heat source. German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) “Sustainable wood” here does not mean industrial wood production. That is what the document says: For waste wood, the balance only accounts for the expenses for processing and transport. Furthermore, despite the discussion about “carbon debts” in the energetic use of forest wood (Agostini, Giuntoli & Boulamanti, 2013; et al., 2017), it assumes that the removal of forest wood is greenhouse-gas-neutral due to sustainable forestry in Germany. Thus, only the energetic expenses for harvesting and transporting the wood are counted. ...