Questions and Answers: Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests

WRI researchers argue that global wood harvests significantly increase atmospheric carbon, with annual emissions estimated between 3.5 and 4.2 billion tons of CO2e. The document critiques 'netting' approaches that incorrectly label harvests as carbon neutral by offsetting them against unrelated forest growth. It projects a 54% increase in global wood consumption by 2050 and suggests that reducing fuelwood use and increasing plantation growth rates could mitigate these emissions.

• Global wood consumption is projected to increase by 54% between 2010 and 2050, with specific growth expected in timber products (70%), paper and cardboard products (130%), and wood fuel (20%).
• Wood harvests are estimated to increase atmospheric carbon by 3.5 to 4.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, which exceeds 10% of recent annual human CO2 emissions and is more than three times the emissions from aviation.
• The document argues that 'netting' approaches—which offset harvest emissions against the growth of other forest areas—erroneously suggest wood harvests are carbon neutral because the growth in larger forest areas would occur regardless of the harvests.
• Wood harvests over the 40-year period from 2010 to 2050 are expected to cover an area equivalent to 756-855 million hectares of clear-cuts, an area roughly the size of the Continental U.S.
• Potential mitigation strategies include reducing fuelwood use by 50% from 2050 projected levels (saving 500 million tons per year), increasing plantation growth rates by 50% (saving 600 million tons per year), and reducing the killing of small trees during tropical forest harvests (saving 200 million tons per year).
• The use of timber instead of concrete and steel in construction is estimated to save an average of 0.9 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year over the next 40 years, though this only accounts for production emissions and not the carbon lost from the forest.

APA

Peng, L., Searchinger, T., Zionts, J., & Waite, R. (2023). Questions and Answers: Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-07/carbon-costs-global-wood-harvests-faq_0.pdf

Chicago

Peng, Liqing, Timothy Searchinger, Jessica Zionts, and Richard Waite. Questions and Answers: Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests. World Resources Institute, 2023. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-07/carbon-costs-global-wood-harvests-faq_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Peng |first1=Liqing |last2=Searchinger |first2=Timothy |last3=Zionts |first3=Jessica |last4=Waite |first4=Richard |title=Questions and Answers: Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=5 July 2023 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-07/carbon-costs-global-wood-harvests-faq_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{peng2023questions, author = {Peng, Liqing and Searchinger, Timothy and Zionts, Jessica and Waite, Richard}, title = {{Questions and Answers: Carbon Costs of Global Wood Harvests}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-07/carbon-costs-global-wood-harvests-faq_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }