ABSTRACT
The negative emissions rate eventually declines as the carbon stock becomes saturated when forests mature over the course of several decades. Climate change has been recognized for some time now as a critical global environmental issue that is approaching crisis levels. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration exceeds 400 ppm, and continues to rise due to additional emissions driven by economic development and population growth. Conventional bioenergy systems are nearly carbon-neutral because photosynthesis during plant growth offsets downstream CO2 emissions from the combustion of biomass. Tree growth absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and locks up the carbon in solid form within the plant biomass. Additional carbon is also stored naturally in forest soil as a result. In a system at steady state, the carbon flows to and from the atmosphere balance each other out.
