On 25th of October 2022, I attended an online seminar on Carbon accounting in the biomass sector organised by the The Imperial Network of Excellence in Sustainability through Life Cycle Approaches. The seminar touched upon the fundamental difference between the fossil and biogenic carbon cycles, which have been historically separated with Greenhouse Gas targets focused almost entirely on reducing fossil emissions.
However, the growing need for countries, corporates and indeed the world to deliver ‘net zero’ brings a new focus to the importance of the biogenic carbon cycle, which has a significant temporal component. Dealing with this was discussed by Michael Goldsworthy, PhD, the Head of Climate Change and Carbon Strategy at Drax. He discussed the challenges faced by Drax in conducting climate-relevant LCAs for forestry-derived products and the difficulties in determining the potential contribution of biogenic removals in mitigating fossil emissions in the delivery of ‘net zero’.