Carbon mitigation with woody biomass and CCS : an economic assessment

This Thesis analyzes the contributions from woody biomass with CCS (BECCS) in mitigating GHG emissions. I used the IAM WITCH tool. In Chapters 2-3 I use biomass supply curves from GLOBIOM. In Chapters 4-5 I instead link WITCH to GTM. The policy scenarios consist of three carbon taxes. Results show that as the carbon tax increases the demand of BECCS will reach 66-90 EJ/yr in 2100. The introduction of international trade of biomass in WITCH makes it possible to increase the emissions abatement by 120-323 GtCO2 and reduce cumulative policy costs by 14% over the century. Linking WITCH to GTM, I show that bio-energy demand will have implications for land use. The demand will reach 8-15 billion m3/yr while the price of wood will increase 4-9 times relative to the BAU by 2100. This increase would shrink the demand for industrial wood from 80-90%. Forest area will expand by 70-95% relative to the BAU and increase the global stock of forest carbon by 685-1,279 GtCO2 by 2100.