• Energy Research

Large quantities of wood products have historically been disposed of in landfills. The fate of this vast pool of carbon plays an important role in national carbon balances and accurate emission reporting. The Republic of Ireland, like many EU countries, utilises the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for greenhouse gas reporting in the waste sector, which provides default factors for emissions estimation. For wood products, the release of carbon is directly proportional to the decomposition of the degradable organic carbon fraction of the product, for which the IPCC provides a value of 0.5 (50%). However, in situ analytic results of the decomposition rates of carbon in landfilled wood do not corroborate this figure; suggesting that carbon emissions are likely overestimated. To assess the impact of this overestimation on emission reporting, carbon decomposition values obtained from literature and the IPCC default factor were applied to the Irish wood fraction of landfilled waste for the years 1957-2016 and compared. Univariate analysis found a statistically significant difference between carbon (methane) emissions calculated using the IPCC default factor and decomposition factors from direct measurements for softwoods (F = 45.362, p = <.001), hardwoods (F = 20.691, p = <.001) and engineered wood products (U = 4.726, p = <.001). However, there was no significant difference between emissions calculated using only the in situ analytic decomposition factors, regardless of time in landfill, location or subsequently, climate. This suggests that methane emissions from the wood fraction of landfilled waste in Ireland could be drastically overestimated; potentially by a factor of 56. The results of this study highlight the implications of emission reporting at a lower tierand prompts further research into the decomposition of wood products in landfills at a national level.

Large quantities of wood products have historically been disposed of in landfills. The fate of this vast pool of carbon plays an important role in national carbon balances and accurate emission reporting. The Republic of Ireland, like many EU countries, utilises the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for greenhouse gas reporting in the waste sector, which provides default factors for emissions estimation. For wood products, the release of carbon is directly proportional to the decomposition of the degradable organic carbon fraction of the product, for which the IPCC provides a value of 0.5 (50%). However, in situ analytic results of the decomposition rates of carbon in landfilled wood do not corroborate this figure; suggesting that carbon emissions are likely overestimated. To assess the impact of this overestimation on emission reporting, carbon decomposition values obtained from literature and the IPCC default factor were applied to the Irish wood fraction of landfilled waste for the years 1957-2016 and compared. Univariate analysis found a statistically significant difference between carbon (methane) emissions calculated using the IPCC default factor and decomposition factors from direct measurements for softwoods (F = 45.362, p = <.001), hardwoods (F = 20.691, p = <.001) and engineered wood products (U = 4.726, p = <.001). However, there was no significant difference between emissions calculated using only the in situ analytic decomposition factors, regardless of time in landfill, location or subsequently, climate. This suggests that methane emissions from the wood fraction of landfilled waste in Ireland could be drastically overestimated; potentially by a factor of 56. The results of this study highlight the implications of emission reporting at a lower tierand prompts further research into the decomposition of wood products in landfills at a national level.

Food is an essential human need underpinning health and wellbeing, while also having the potential to support environmental sustainability [...]

Food is an essential human need underpinning health and wellbeing, while also having the potential to support environmental sustainability [...]

Global and national environmental targets for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector need to be reconciled with increasing food and protein demands of a growing global population. Meeting climate targets in AFOLU is a tremendous challenge in countries with high ruminant livestock production and small forest carbon sinks. Using GOBLIN, an integrated assessment model that utilises a back-casting approach, 2187 future AFOLU configuration scenarios are explored to investigate whether current levels of bovine protein production in Ireland are compatible with net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Seven proven GHG mitigation measures are combined at three levels of ambition and screened according to three definitions of net zero based on the GWP100 metric, with a focus on the integration of clover-based grasslands. Net zero was achieved in 19 % of scenarios when all GHGs require balancing by 2050. The current livestock herd configuration was incompatible with net zero, which required at least 1.5 million ha of grassland to be diverted from livestock production towards climate-positive land uses, including afforestation of close to 10 % of terrestrial land area by 2050. When applying less stringent net zero definitions based on a split gas approach, up to 63 % of explored scenarios achieved net zero. Independent of net zero definition (which must be internationally fair and transparent), results indicate that bovine protein production can only be maintained through very high deployment of ambitious technical abatement measures, alongside major land use transformation requiring large-scale structural changes in the agriculture sector.

Global and national environmental targets for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector need to be reconciled with increasing food and protein demands of a growing global population. Meeting climate targets in AFOLU is a tremendous challenge in countries with high ruminant livestock production and small forest carbon sinks. Using GOBLIN, an integrated assessment model that utilises a back-casting approach, 2187 future AFOLU configuration scenarios are explored to investigate whether current levels of bovine protein production in Ireland are compatible with net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Seven proven GHG mitigation measures are combined at three levels of ambition and screened according to three definitions of net zero based on the GWP100 metric, with a focus on the integration of clover-based grasslands. Net zero was achieved in 19 % of scenarios when all GHGs require balancing by 2050. The current livestock herd configuration was incompatible with net zero, which required at least 1.5 million ha of grassland to be diverted from livestock production towards climate-positive land uses, including afforestation of close to 10 % of terrestrial land area by 2050. When applying less stringent net zero definitions based on a split gas approach, up to 63 % of explored scenarios achieved net zero. Independent of net zero definition (which must be internationally fair and transparent), results indicate that bovine protein production can only be maintained through very high deployment of ambitious technical abatement measures, alongside major land use transformation requiring large-scale structural changes in the agriculture sector.

AbstractThe EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is critical for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and active afforestation of degraded peatlands has been suggested as a restoration measure under the NRL. Here, we discuss the current state of scientific evidence on the climate mitigation effects of peatlands under forestry. Afforestation of drained peatlands without restoring their hydrology does not fully restore ecosystem functions. Evidence on long-term climate benefits is lacking and it is unclear whether CO2 sequestration of forest on drained peatland can offset the carbon loss from the peat over the long-term. While afforestation may offer short-term gains in certain cases, it compromises the sustainability of peatland carbon storage. Thus, active afforestation of drained peatlands is not a viable option for climate mitigation under the EU Nature Restoration Law and might even impede future rewetting/restoration efforts. Instead, restoring hydrological conditions through rewetting is crucial for effective peatland restoration.