Greenhouse Gases

UN report recommends package of 16 measures to rapidly reduce global warming, including clean cook-stoves for developing countries, banning open burning of agricultural waste, stopping methane leaks from mines and pipelines, clean diesels and phasing out wood-burning stoves in wealthy countries.

Non-CO2 substances cause 50% of warming

About half of current man-made warming is caused by substances other than CO2, including methane (CH4), ozone (O3) and black carbon (BC).

Reducing this 50% of warming is vitally important - the graph (produced by a team of 50 scientists from the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization (UNEP/WMO)) shows  that we are unlikely to meet the Copenhagen limit of 2 degrees without tackling these pollutants.

The UNEP recommended “a range of compelling, and in many cases highly cost-effective options for fast action on BC, CH4 and tropospheric ozone.”[2

Defusing the ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

Reducing emissions of BC, CH4 and ozone precusors produces a rapid reduction in warming (dark blue line on the graph), because these pollutants cause substantial warming, but stay in the atmosphere for shorter periods of time than CO2. A reduction in BC and CH4 emissions therefore produces a big reduction in current warming which prevents future warming by slowing the melting of glaciers and polar icecaps, allowing them to continue to reflect radiation back into space.  

Reducing current warming also helps keep methane locked away in permafrost and frozen undersea stores.  Charles Miller, principal investigator of NASA’s Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) warned in 2013: "Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius) in just the past 30 years".


Prof Carlos Duarte, Director of the University of WA’s Oceans Institute also warned about the devastating consequences if current warming causes substantial quantities of methane to be released from the Arctic: “The amount of greenhouse gas stored in methane hydrates in the Arctic is several times the total CO release since the industrial revolution” see Methane hydrates: a volatile time bomb in the Arctic and all hell breaks loose as the tundra thaws.  


   Nobel prize-winning scientist Mario Molina joins discoverer of the greenhouse effect of halocarbons, V. Ramanathan, and the president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, Durwood Zaelkein calling for immediate action to cut four super-pollutants, which could make the difference between a reasonably safe climate and one that carries staggering human and financial costs.
"Unless we rapidly slow down these self-amplifying feedback mechanisms, we could lose the first major battle of climate change and face worse problems in the future."


July 2017. Thawing Permafrost Poses Even Greater Climate Threat Than Previously ThoughtThawing tundra may be allowing long-buried pockets of methane to be released into the atmosphere, new research suggests. A study surveying the Mackenzie Delta in Canada, published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports, suggested that these methane "seeps" on the tundra may be more problematic than previously thought.
   The study finds that 17 percent of methane emissions in the area came from these seeps, despite emissions hotspots only covering one percent of the tundra's surface area. The authors wrote that warming will "increase emissions of geologic methane that is currently still trapped under thick, continuous permafrost, as new emission pathways open due to thawing permafrost."  "We were a bit surprised … we saw these very strong emissions.

CO2 doubled but methane has increased increased almost 4-fold since pre-industrial times
see graph from: 










Global warming from methane
(CH4) emissions from domestic wood heaters



Lab results confirmed by real-life measurements 



Pellet heaters cause much less global warming

 Climate change, if left unaddressed, is expected to increase air pollution-related deaths by nearly 60,000 in 2030 and 260,000 in 2100 globally, a study has claimed.

According to the study, hotter temperatures speed up the chemical reactions that create air pollutants like ozone and fine particulate matters, which impact public health.
The most effective ways individuals can reduce their contribution to global warming

New Scientist: Logging study reveals huge hidden emissions of the forestry industry  A life-cycle analysis by economist John Talberth at the Center for Sustainable Economy, an environmental think-tank based in Oregon, US, takes account of factors such as the carbon released as the roots of cut trees rot in the ground and the fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides applied to tree plantations. The conclusion: logging in North Carolina emits 44 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.  That makes it the third largest source in the state, just behind electricity generation and transportation, and far ahead of farming and other industries.

Wall Street Journal: Wood Pellets Draw Fire as Alternative to Coal  “The irony is, burning gas would release far less carbon-dioxide than burning wood,” said Bill Moomaw, co-author of five reports for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one of which helped earn the IPCC a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Is burning wood for heat green? In a word, no  ... It is probably time to conclude that burning wood isn't green, and it isn't safe. 
Forbes: Wood - The Lethal Renewable Energy Swindle.  Written in April 2017: "Owing to poverty, around three billion people globally cook and heat their homes with wood, twigs and dung. More than four million die prematurely each year because of the resulting indoor air pollution  ... It is estimated that in Europe, small-scale domestic wood and biomass combustion will become the dominant source of the most dangerous particulate air pollution by 2020 ... it will be a bigger source of killer pollution than cars or industry and much bigger than power generation ... Around 3,900 deaths every 24 hours can be attributed to fossil fuels, whereas 11,000 deaths daily are caused by our reliance on biomass."

Increased burning has reduced CO2 uptake of EU forests  
"increased harvesting is reducing the amount of CO2 that EU forests are taking up from the atmosphere – at a time when this needs to be increasing. By 2014,4 EU forests were already sequestering 24 million tons less CO2 than they were in 2009. By 2020, this is projected to drop by a further 57 million tons. Together that’s equivalent to an extra 80 million cars on the road or the annual CO2 emissions of Romania!"
Research in June 2017 by Fern, Birdlife International & Transport International. "Few could have guessed that a policy intended to help the EU meet climate goals would lead to vast increases in the burning of wood, degrading forests in Europe and beyond.

Pulp Fiction: The European Accounting Error That's Warming the Planet - a groundbreaking series by Climate Central on the climate-threatening rise of wood energy, named as a finalist for one national journalism award, and as a runner-up in anotherMost wood energy schemes are a 'disaster' for climate change"The fact that forests have grown over the previous 20 or 100 years means they are storing large amounts of carbon, you can't pretend it doesn't make an impact on the atmosphere if you cut them down and burn them...."You could fix them in wood products or in furniture or you could burn them, but the impact on the climate is very different."

New Scientist: The EU’s renewable energy policy is making global warming worse
May 2019: Dangerous delusions: biomass is not a renewable energy source It may be difficult for many people to accept that burning biomass is just as bad, if not worse, than burning fossil fuels, but this fact is finally sparking national and international movements against the biomass and biofuel industries. 
According to the IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5 degrees, we have only 11 years in which to change how we consume and live. The bioenergy and unsustainable biofuel industries operate using the same extractive ideology that got us here in the first place -- an ideology which puts resource exploitation and short-term gains ahead of indigenous rights, local communities and ecosystems.
Jan 2018: MIT Study warns wood bioenergy supporters can’t see carbon emissions for the trees 
A new report from MIT Sloan professor John Sterman supports the growing argument that burning wood pellets for power is worse for the climate than burning coal, because of the short-term effects and the “potentially irreversible impacts that may arise before the long-run benefits are realized.”  ... “It’s like an investment in which you give your bank $1,000 today,” Sterman said in a statement. “They promise to pay you back, but only over 80 years, and only if they don’t go out of business first or decide there’s something else they’d rather spend your money on. You’re better off if you keep your money. In the same way, it’s better to keep the trees on the land and keep all that carbon out of the atmosphere.”  The report pointed to solar and wind power (zero-carbon energy sources) as the safest, easiest, and cheapest ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Different Fuel, same Fire. Almuth Ernsting, Aug 2018. "Wood-based bioenergy is far from carbon neutral and its production has grave consequences for land use and ecosystems around the world  .... 800 scientists recently warned the European Parliament: “Even if forests are allowed to regrow, using wood deliberately harvested for burning will increase carbon in the atmosphere and warming for decades to centuries – as many studies have shown – even when wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas".

Stanford study shows effects of biomass burning on climate, health
   A new study by Stanford Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, has quantified the amount of global warming caused by biomass burning.

  Jacobson said the sum of warming due to all anthropogenic greenhouse gases – CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and some others – plus the warming due to black and brown carbon will yield a planetary warming effect of 2 degrees Celsius over the 20-year period simulated by the computer. But light-colored particles – white and gray particles primarily – reflect sunlight and enhance cloudiness, causing more light to reflect.
    "The cooling effect of these light-colored particles amounts to slightly more than 1 degree Celsius," said Jacobson, "so you end up with a total net warming gain of 0.9 degree Celsius or so. Of that net gain, we've calculated that biomass burning accounts for about 0.4 degree Celsius."
The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world.  In 2016, there were record-breaking high temperatures and low levels of sea ice.  Analysis of samples showed that the Black Carbon in the Arctic was coming primarily from transportation and home heating with coal or biomass.

Sierra Club: Burning wood contributes to climate disruption - EPA-certified stoves are not the answer to woodsmoke pollution  

Sustainable Energy Associations demonstrate the benefits of efficient heat pumps to reduce global warming as well as air pollution.
The workshop, organized by the Sustainable Energy Association of British Columbia, Canada, starts off with a presentation and short videos, and a panel of experts will be there to answer your questions.

Green Building "Claimed carbon savings for biomass energy take no account of the alternative uses of the material. Wood products store carbon for generations and are capable of being reused many times before the carbon they contain escapes back into the atmosphere. Wood should only be burnt for energy production when it has no other viable environmental or commercial use and that is not true of most woody biomass fuel in today’s energy market."

Where HAVE all our woods gone? Up in smoke..felling British hard wood forests in order to burn them is harming biodiversity, destroying habitats, and may well increase emissions. ‘Big, hardwood trees are enormous carbon sinks, and take hundreds of years to be replaced.’
U.S. Groups Join Global Call to Remove Wood-based Biomass From European Union Renewable Energy Directive "The declaration submitted today demands that bioenergy not be defined and subsidized as renewable energy under the EU directive, citing growing scientific evidence that current EU bioenergy policy has done tremendous harm to people, forests and the climate."

Cartoon (left): Steve Sack, Star Tribute

Double global warming whammy from domestic wood heating and diesel particles
   A study in 2015 by a science team led by Los Alamos National Laboratory shows that the particulates found in urban smoke are especially prone to absorbing sunlight and having a heating effect on the planet. The new analysis demonstrates that wood burning emits organic species that coat soot particles produced by diesel combustion, creating a lens to focus sunlight and increase warming. The study also shows that the magnification is increased as the particles age and are coated with more airborne chemicals.

Climate Central Report - Pulp Fiction - The European Accounting Error That's Warming the Planet
The damaging effects of black carbon 23 Mar 2016. "The EPA report asserts that globally, the best strategies for reducing black carbon emissions include targeting brick kilns and coke ovens in Asia, and cookstoves and diesel vehicles everywhere."
Unaccounted for Arctic microbes appear to be speeding up glacier melting 23 Mar 2016.  "on a grainy, soil-like substance found on the surface of Arctic ice known as cryoconite, which is made of dust and industrial soot glued together by photosynthetic bacteria ...he bacterially-made granules self-regulate the depth and shape of these holes to maximise their exposure to sunlight, which in turn further melts the glacier's surface ice"
Risk of multiple tipping points should be triggering urgent action on climate change  21 Mar 2016. "multiple interacting climate tipping points could be triggered this century if climate change isn't tackled - leading to irreversible economic damages worldwide. Using a state-of-the-art model, the researchers studied the effects of five interacting tipping points on the global economy - including a collapse of the Atlantic overturning circulation, a shift to a more persistent El Nino regime, and a dieback of the Amazon rainforest.
The study showed that the possibility of triggering these future tipping points increased the present 'social cost of carbon' in the model by nearly eightfold - from US$15 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted, to US$116/tCO2."
Dangerous global warming will happen sooner than thought  10 March 2016. "University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers have developed a “global energy tracker” which predicts average world temperatures could climb 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2020.  That forecast, based on new modelling using long-term average projections on economic growth, population growth and energy use per person, points to a 2C rise by 2030."

Greenpeace - Fuelling a Biomess 



Relationship between methane and particle emissions in domestic wood heaters

    The results for eucyalypt hardwoods (see graph) were used by consultant Prof John Todd to derive an equation (CH4 = 1.495 x particle emissions) which is used by the Australian Greenhouse Office to estimate methane from particle emissions.
        For pine, the graph shows a combination of Australian and overseas results. In John Gras's Australian study  the AS4103 heater burning pine had average particle emissions of 15.8 grams per kg of wood burned and methane emissions of 30 grams per kg, equivalent to the global warming of 1.02 kg of carbon dioxide over 100 years and in the 20 years after emission of 2.58 kg CO2.  
     The average wood stove in Armidale burns about 4 tonnes of firewood per year.  One report suggested that the shortage of hardwood might be overcome by burning softwood.  However, this would be disastrous for the climate.  Including the global warming from methane, black carbon and carbon monoxide, a correctly-operated heater burning 4 tonnes of softwood per year would be expected to cause as much global warming over 20 years as the emission of 75 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to the global warming over 20 years from heating perhaps 40 similar houses in Armidale with an efficient reverse cycle electric heat pump using coal-fired power, or many more if a proportion of the power is generated by wind, solar or other renewables.

Black Carbon



Alternative clean, renewable energy



Install rooftop PV solar cells - cheaper and cleaner than woodheating


Interesting/useful links

IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
L.A. Times cuts off climate-change deniers

How Europe’s climate policies led to more U.S. trees being cut down A number of independent experts and scientific studies including an analysis released in May 2015 are casting doubt on a key argument used to justify the cutting of Southern forests to make fuel. In reality, these scientists say, Europe’s appetite for wood pellets could lead to more carbon pollution for decades to come, while also putting some of the East Coast’s most productive wildlife habitats at risk. Scientists fly glacial ice to south pole to unlock secrets of global warming. As ice forms on a glacier, it encloses small bubbles of air that contain a sample of the atmosphere at that time. From these samples, scientists can measure atmospheric concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane over periods that range from hundreds to tens of thousands of years into the past. In order to retain this information, ice cores are being extracted and flown to a specially constructed vault at the French-Italian Concordia research base, 1,000 miles from the south pole.
Current atmospheric models underestimate the dirtiness of Arctic air Black carbon aerosols are important for understanding climate change. Unfortunately, current simulation models consistently underestimate the amount of these aerosols in the Arctic compared to actual measurements.
Guardian, 2011: Wood fires fuel climate change – UN
Thinkprogress, 2015: How The EPA And New York Times Are Getting Methane All Wrong
Geophysical Research Letters article, Dec 2017 - Methane causes 20‐25% more warming than previously thought.
Wood Burning, Biomass, Air Pollution, and Climate Change by Christopher D. Ahlers "In labeling wood burning as a source of “renewable energy,” consumers and corporations have overlooked a more compelling and immediate health problem. Worldwide, air pollution causes the deaths of approximately seven million people every year, far more than the number of deaths from climate change. Mortality is largely due to air emissions of fine particulate matter. Given the popularity of burning wood and regulatory loopholes, the public health effects of air pollution go underregulated, and often unregulated. As a source of energy that is generated by combustion and results in the direct emission of fine particulates, biomass is like coal, oil, and natural gas (non-renewable energy), and unlike solar and wind (renewable energy)."  
Quote from paper:  "In theory, nuclear power is far more “renewable” than biomass, yet it is denied the “renewability” label because of the fear of health and environmental impacts. There is no reason why this reasoning should not also extend to biomass and wood burning, given the nature of the air pollutants (criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants) and their adverse impacts on public health."
Is Biomass Energy Renewable?  discussion of some of the ideas in Dr Ahlers' report.