Simulation of Vegetation Carbon Sink of Arbor Forest and Carbon Mitigation of Forestry Bioenergy in China

Xiaozhe Ma, Leying Wu, Yongbin Zhu, Jing Wu () and Yaochen Qin ()
Additional contact information
Xiaozhe Ma: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Leying Wu: Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development & Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China
Yongbin Zhu: Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Jing Wu: Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yaochen Qin: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-18

Abstract: Mitigating carbon emissions through forest carbon sinks is one of the nature-based solutions to global warming. Forest ecosystems play a role as a carbon sink and an important source of bioenergy. China’s forest ecosystems have significantly contributed to mitigating carbon emissions. However, there are relatively limited quantitative studies on the carbon mitigation effects of forestry bioenergy in China, so this paper simulated the carbon sequestration of Chinese arbor forest vegetation from 2018 to 2060 based on the CO2FIX model and accounted for the carbon emission reduction brought about by substituting forestry bioenergy for fossil energy, which is important for the formulation of policies to tackle climate change in the Chinese forestry sector. The simulation results showed that the carbon storage of all arbor forest vegetation in China increased year by year from 2018 to 2060, and, overall, it behaved as a carbon sink, with the annual carbon sink fluctuating in the region of 250 MtC/a. For commercial forests that already existed in 2018, the emission reduction effected by substituting forestry bioenergy for fossil energy was significant. The average annual carbon reduction in terms of bioenergy by using traditional and improved stoves reached 36.1 and 69.3 MtC/a, respectively. Overall, for China’s existing arbor forests, especially commercial forests, forestry bioenergy should be utilized more efficiently to further exploit its emission reduction potential. For future newly planted forests in China, new afforestation should focus on ecological public welfare forests, which are more beneficial as carbon sinks.

Keywords: arbor forest; vegetation carbon sink; bioenergy; CO2FIX model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13507/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13507/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13507-:d:946594

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().