There are three options for wood feedstock in the model, mill residues, forest residues, and short rotation forestry.
The two most common feedstocks being considered in Canada are mill residues and forest residues. For these two cases, the feedstock already exists and is being diverted from other combustion or decomposition end of life. In both cases the CO2 will end up in the atmosphere, the same as if the feedstock is used for transportation fuel so no special treatment of the biogenic CO2 is required since both the reference and study systems are the same.
The short rotation option was added to the model more than a decade ago and while it considers the growing and harvesting of the tree there is no accounting for changes in the forest carbon stock. As you are aware there are widely differing views on how these should be treated. The wood pathways do report the biogenic emissions as a separate item on the lifecycle emission sheets which allow the modeller to make their own choices about how they should be treated.
Regards
Don O'Connor
