Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from wood fuel use by households

The combustion of wood fuel for residential use is often not considered to be a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from households, as the emissions from wood fuel combustion can be offset by the CO2 absorbed by the growth of the forest (as a carbon sink) (IPCC, 2006). However, this only applies to wood that is harvested in a renewable way, i.e. at a rate not exceeding the regrowth rate of the forest from which it was harvested (Drigo et al., 2002). This paper estimates the share of GHG emissions attributable to non-renewable wood fuel harvesting for use in residential food activities, by country and with global coverage. It adds to a growing research base estimating GHG emissions from across the entire agri-food value chain, from the manufacture of farm inputs, through food supply chains, and finally to waste disposal (Tubiello et al., 2021). Country-level information is generated from United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and International Energy Agency (IEA) data on wood fuel use by households. We find that, in 2019, annual emissions from non-renewable wood fuel consumed for household food preparation were about 745x106 t (Mt CO2eq. yr-1), with an uncertainty ranging from -63 % to +64 %. Overall, global trends were a result of counterbalancing effects: the emission increases were largely fuelled by countries in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Latin America, whereas significant decreases were seen in countries in eastern Asia and South-East Asia. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed and regularly maintains a database covering GHG emissions from the various components of the agri-food sector, including pre- and post-production activities, by country and world regions. The dataset has been developed according to the International Panel on Climate Change guidelines (IPCC, 2006), which avoid overlaps between agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) and energy components. The aforementioned dataset relies mainly on UNSD Energy Statistics data, which are used as activity data for the calculation of the GHG emissions (Tubiello et al., 2022). The information used in this work is available as open data at (Flammini et al., 2022a).

Automated summary

This paper estimates the contribution of non-renewable wood fuel harvesting to greenhouse gas emissions from household food activities, at country and global levels. The study finds that in 2019, annual emissions from non-renewable wood fuel used for household food preparation were approximately 745x106 tonnes of CO2eq., with an uncertainty ranging from -63% to +64%. Global trends were characterized by emission increases in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Latin America, and significant decreases in eastern Asia and South-East Asia.