GREENHOUSE IMPACT OF THE ENERGY USE OF PEAT ESTIMATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF AFFORESTATION OF PEATLANDS AS AN AFTERTREATMENT

摘要

Peat is an important energy resource in Finland. An approximate energy content of peat has been estimated to be 7300 TWh (Savolainen et al. 1994). This is about twenty times the present yearly energy use in Finland. The use of peat as fuel causes rather high greenhouse gas emissions in Finland. Emissions are about ten per cent from the total national emissions. Carbon has been sequestered in peatlands under very long time spans. When peat is used for energy production this carbon will be released to the atmosphere. In the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions for the Climate Convention and in the Kyoto emission trading the guidelines given by IPCC must be used. So far only emissions due to combustion and peat production are taken into account in the reporting for the Climate Convention. The present practice (IPCC) gives that the combustion of peat causes emissions 106 g CO_2 /MJ, when the combustion of coal gives emissions 93 g CO_2 /MJ. In the Finnish national inventories emissions due to peat combustion were 9.5 Mt CO_2 in 2001 and emissions from peat production areas about 1 Mt CO_2. New guidelines (LULUCF) include some changes. It is possible that the future guidelines consider peat taking into account also those impacts which might decrease greenhouse impact of peat.