There is a continuing debate over the role that woody bioenergy plays in climate mitigation. This paper clarifies this controversy and illustrates the impacts of woody biomass demand on forest harvests, prices, timber management investments and intensity, forest area, and the resulting carbon balance under different climate mitigation policies. Increased bioenergy demand increases forest carbon stocks thanks to afforestation activities and more intensive management relative to a no-bioenergy case. Some natural forests, however, are converted to more intensive management, with potential biodiversity losses. Incentivizing both wood-based bioenergy and forest sequestration could increase carbon sequestration and conserve natural forests simultaneously. We conclude that the expanded use of wood for bioenergy will result in net carbon benefits, but an efficient policy also needs to regulate forest carbon sequestration.

关于木质生物能源在减缓气候变化方面所发挥的作用一直存在争论。本文澄清了这一争议，并说明了木质生物质需求对森林采伐、价格、木材管理投资和强度、森林面积以及不同气候缓解政策下由此产生的碳平衡的影响。由于造林活动和相对于无生物能源情况更加集约化的管理，生物能源需求的增加增加了森林碳储量。然而，一些天然林转变为更加集约化的管理，可能导致生物多样性丧失。激励木质生物能源和森林固存可以增加碳固存并同时保护天然林。我们的结论是，扩大木材生物能源的使用将带来净碳效益，但有效的政策还需要规范森林碳固存。