A Framework for Assessing Carbon Flow in Indian Wood Products

This paper uses a lifecycle analysis to trace the fate of carbon bound in wood products until most of the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to find the effect of change in terminal use (recycling, land filling and burning of discarded products), half-life of wood products and decay rate of carbon in landfills. Of the total carbon harvested from forests in India, about 90% is released into the atmosphere in the first year, due to burning of fuelwood; at the end of 100 years, about 0.8% still remains in the wood products. The sensitivity analysis shows that the length of the lifespan of wood products has only a marginal effect on the amount of carbon sequestered but has significant effect on the amount of carbon in products in use. Thus an important conclusion from this scenario is that by increasing the durability of the wood products, carbon can be locked over a period equal to the time needed to grow the timber for these products. Further, the carbon storage is affected more significantly by the decay rate of carbon in landfills than the proportion of products recycled. The study also shows that wood products can be important stores of carbon, but only if they can substitute for a unit of carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels. Such a lifecycle analysis has the potential to account completely for carbon stock changes in the wood products, where and when they are occurring, and explain how they are occurring.