What is it about?
Deeply reducing global greenhouse gas emissions is a very challenging task. There are a number of "integrated assessment models" that scope out how combinations of different strategies - renewable electricity, energy efficiency, new technologies, etc - can combine to reduce emissions. One strategy common to most assessments is greater use of forest biomass to make fuels. This increased harvesting in forests and in forest plantations can reduce biodiversity. Before our study, integrated assessment models do not even consider biodiversity; they just include economic factors and greenhouse gas emissions. We demonstrate how biodiversity can be included in these models. And we show that biodiversity can be somewhat protected by making relatively small changes.
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Perspectives
This is an initial example of integrating biodiversity into an integrated assessment model. We hope others will take up the challenge and find more and better ways to incorporate biodiversity protection into plans for reducing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Valerie M. Thomas
Georgia Institute of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Managing Forests for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change Mitigation, Environmental Science & Technology, May 2024, American Chemical Society (ACS),
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07163.
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