Can future cities grow a carbon storage equal to forests?

Abstract

Urban areas have experienced exponential growth since the industrial revolution and by virtue, the urban population has followed. Current projections suggest that this growth has yet to reach its peak implying that urban developments will continue to sprawl into untouched territories. This growth and subsequent sprawl will undoubtedly come at the expense of forested areas. This study presents a Carbon Storage Factor indicator for new urban developments. It is a novel concept which integrates urban planning, land use changes and wooden construction. The factor sets a carbon storage requirement for new urban areas that are developed at the expense of forested areas. The study is conducted in four parts. First, we estimate the carbon storage potential of forest areas via existing literature and databases. Then we collect all new development and construction estimates up to the year 2050 for the whole metropolitan region in Finland. Next, we conduct scenario analyses for different demand levels of wood in projected residential developments. Finally, we compare the carbon storage potential of the future building stock to the forest areas planned for development. The data used is provided by the regional authority. The results detail that the future residential building stock can store between 128–733 kt of carbon. The lower level implies that current construction methods can only partially preserve the carbon storage of an area in buildings. However, the higher level suggests future buildings to be able to exceed the carbon storage potential of forest areas by nearly 47 tC/ha. The study reminds that an increased use of wood is dependent on sustainable forest management practices. Furthermore, it is not our purpose to promote urban development into entirely new areas but rather encourage urban planners to consider the carbon balance when it is the only viable option.

Carbon storage in the built environment: a review

“…Storing carbon in long-lasting building elements is an important strategy for a zero-carbon society (Pittau et al 2019) with the potential to make the built environment a carbon storage beyond the upfront development emissions (Amiri et al 2020, Talvitie et al 2023. However, fast-growing biobased materials such as straw and hempcrete blocks are the most promising materials with high CSS potential combined with rapid carbon re-absorbtion by the new crops (Pittau et al 2019).…”

“…While the built environment is currently a major source of emissions with a staggering share of 40% of the annual global emissions, it is possible to transform this source of emissions into a carbon sink and storage (Amiri et al 2020, Churkina et al 2020, Talvitie et al 2023. Biogenic CSS has the potential to play a pivotal role as it offers multiple pathways for cities to improve their carbon sink capacity.…”

“…The first two methods represent indirect biogenic methods, where the initial CSS is converted into a long-term storage in the built environment by secondary processes, often outside the urban boundary. Amiri et al (2020) and Talvitie et al (2023) have demonstrated the potential efficiency of these methods, up to net positivity. The latter two represent direct methods, which improve the resulting carbon sink and storage within the cityscape in-situ.…”

The impact of disclosure of green accounting information on company performance on the Indonesia Stock Exchange

“…For example, industrial activity and traffic create smoke that carries black carbon particles into the atmosphere, trapping heat on the Earth's surface and increasing the temperature around us (Moteki et al, 2023). In line with concerns that the Earth's temperature will increase beyond the limits of tolerance for human life and environmental damage is getting worse, various countries and business entities are trying to prevent or remediate existing conditions (Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2022;Talvitie et al, 2023).…”