The Present Net Impact Value for the Atmospheric Emission of Forest Carbon from Harvested Wood Products

Abstract With emerging issues of global climate change, it is clear that there is value in controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Managing the release or uptake of carbon by forests is an important opportunity to yield reductions in atmospheric CO 2 , and this includes managing the amount of harvested forest carbon that is stored in harvested wood products (HWP). To evaluate the contribution of forest carbon to climate change, we need to evaluate how much carbon is released to the atmosphere, when it is released, how long the released C remains in the atmosphere, and our preference for the timing and amplitude of climate change. When forest is harvested, the subsequent amount of carbon in the atmosphere depends on the processes and efficiency of harvest, the life times of the forest products, and the treatment of forest products at the end of their useful lifetime. This paper assembles extensive US data on the fractions of forest carbon that are released to the atmosphere during the processing of a forest harvest and the production and life expectancy of harvested wood products (HWP). Using a model of the global carbon cycle and an illustrated treatment of time preference, we calculate the relative cost of different forest management scenarios in terms of the ton years of CO 2 in the atmosphere. We show that delaying the emission of one ton of C as CO 2 for 1 year yields a reduction of 41.74 ton years of carbon in the atmosphere when integrated to infinite time and using a low time preference of 1% per year. Alternate scenarios of forest harvest and product management can be compared against this scenario to compare their relative impact on global climate change.