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Science 23 October 2009:
Vol. 326. no. 5952, pp. 527 - 528
DOI: 10.1126/science.1178797
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Policy Forum

Climate Change:

Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error

Timothy D. Searchinger,1,* Steven P. Hamburg,2,* Jerry Melillo,3 William Chameides,4 Petr Havlik,5 Daniel M. Kammen,6 Gene E. Likens,7 Ruben N. Lubowski,2 Michael Obersteiner,5 Michael Oppenheimer,1 G. Philip Robertson,8 William H. Schlesinger,7 G. David Tilman9

The accounting now used for assessing compliance with carbon limits in the Kyoto Protocol and in climate legislation contains a far-reaching but fixable flaw that will severely undermine greenhouse gas reduction goals (1). It does not count CO2 emitted from tailpipes and smokestacks when bioenergy is being used, but it also does not count changes in emissions from land use when biomass for energy is harvested or grown. This accounting erroneously treats all bioenergy as carbon neutral regardless of the source of the biomass, which may cause large differences in net emissions. For example, the clearing of long-established forests to burn wood or to grow energy crops is counted as a 100% reduction in energy emissions despite causing large releases of carbon.

1 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
2 Environmental Defense Fund, Boston, MA 02108, and Washington, DC 20009, USA.
3 Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
4 Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
5 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg 2361, Austria.
6 University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
7 Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY 12545, USA.
8 Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060, USA.
9 University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.

* Authors for correspondence. E-mail: shamburg{at}edf.org (S.P.H.); tsearchi{at}princeton.edu (T.D.S.).

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Challenges for Bioenergy Emission Accounting
Keith L. Kline, et al.
Science Online, 2 Mar 2010 [Full text]

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