Firewood consumption and energy transition: a survey of sources, methods and explanations in Europe and North America

Abstract

This article surveys current literature on historical wood fuel use in North America and Europe. It focuses in particular on the quality of national-level data, highlighting and examining the different methods employed by official bodies to collect this; and in turn, the different assumptions used by historians to use partial data in models to estimate overall consumption. Problematic differences are revealed, along with the likely over-estimation of commonly-used data on the United States in the nineteenth century. It is shown that generally aggregate firewood consumption did not decline in many countries until after World War Two, and remained significant especially in rural domestic uses. The article concludes with a discussion of drivers for different levels of consumption and transition to substitute fuels, highlighting the limitations of price data and the importance of local labour markets for understanding the propensity to use wood fuel or switch to alternatives

Evergreen Oak Biomass Residues for Firewood

“…The reported percentage of roundwood that was used as firewood in Portugal is quite small when compared to the average of the 27 member states of the European Union (22.7%). However, the Portuguese share of firewood in the total roundwood must be read with care because its supply is largely untaxed outside urban contexts and often auto-consumption and informal markets exist [21,22]. For instance, pruning of cork and holm oaks is not recorded as sales of industrial wood [23].…”

Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Depopulated Areas of Mediterranean Europe: A Case Study in Two Inland Provinces of Spain

“…Forestry uses were also affected, and the total forested area has fallen considerably over time in these places [17][18][19]. In addition, in parallel to the abandonment of rural areas and the processes of industrialization, an energy transition took place in which the use of wood was replaced by fossil fuels [20,21], thus enabling the regeneration of forested areas in the second half of the 20th century.…”

Public transport of firewood across the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, United States of America: origin, destination, woody taxa, and reasons for transporting firewood

“…Firewood is used by billions of people throughout the world for cooking, heating, and lighting (World Health Organisation 2016). Even in developed countries, such as Canada and the United States of America, firewood is used in tens of millions of households (Skog and Watterson 1984;Borchert et al 2010;Warde 2019). Moreover, in North America, firewood is commonly transported by the public to recreation sites such as campgrounds (Borchert et al 2010;Jacobi et al 2011;Gagné et al 2017;Daigle et al 2019;Solano et al 2021).…”