The contribution of wood biomass to meeting energy needs and to increasing security of supply is being discussed controversially. Wood is an immediately available, renewable, and technically developed energy source. At the same time, forests in Austria are currently absorbing more carbon on a net basis than they release over a multi-year average, thereby offsetting around 3% of Austrian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A systemic analysis of wood-related carbon flows in Austria shows that the additional wood energy potentials are extremely limited.

The role that wood biomass plays in the sustainable energy use of wood as a raw material and in the transformation of the energy system is addressed by the authors: Karl-Heinz Erb, Simone Gingrich, Georg Gratzer and Helmut Haberl from BOKU, Ulrike Tappeiner from UIBK and Erich Tasser from Eurac Research in the recently published Fact Sheet "Energy from Wood Biomass: Limited Climate Protection Potentials" from the series Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation.

You can find this and other Fact Sheets here!