IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v129y2019icp168-172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Circulating blame in the circular economy: The case of wood-waste biofuels and coal ash

Author

Listed:
  • Millward-Hopkins, Joel
  • Purnell, Phil

Abstract

The transition from coal-based electricity to ‘carbon neutral’ biofuels derived from forests has catalysed a debate largely centred upon whether woody-biofuels drive deforestation. Consequently, a crucial point is often missed. Most wood pellets used in electricity production are derived from waste-wood; a practice considered acceptable by many otherwise strongly opposed to the industry. We highlight that, precisely because waste-wood is a ‘waste’, its carbon-neutral credentials should be questioned. We then examine a parallel development occurring within the same industrial system; the recovery of electricity producers’ combustion-ash residues for concrete production. Contrasting how accounting practices allocate upstream carbon to these ‘wastes’ in the cases of wood pellets and coal-ash reveals how decisions are shaped by industry imperatives, rather than established lifecycle techniques. If the politics of emissions allocation continue to evolve in this way, it may become increasingly difficult to distinguish where progress towards a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable and circular economy is real, from where it is an artefact of biased and inconsistent accounting practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Millward-Hopkins, Joel & Purnell, Phil, 2019. "Circulating blame in the circular economy: The case of wood-waste biofuels and coal ash," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 168-172.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:129:y:2019:i:c:p:168-172
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.02.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519301028
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.02.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agnieszka Bielecka & Joanna Kulczycka, 2020. "Coal Combustion Products Management toward a Circular Economy—A Case Study of the Coal Power Plant Sector in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Emilio Abad-Segura & Ana Batlles-delaFuente & Mariana-Daniela González-Zamar & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña, 2021. "Implications for Sustainability of the Joint Application of Bioeconomy and Circular Economy: A Worldwide Trend Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, June.
    3. Finke, Jonas & Bertsch, Valentin, 2022. "Implementing a highly adaptable method for the multi-objective optimisation of energy systems," MPRA Paper 115504, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Mancini, M. & Rinnan, Å., 2021. "Near infrared technique as a tool for the rapid assessment of waste wood quality for energy applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 113-123.
    5. Finke, Jonas & Bertsch, Valentin & Di Cosmo, Valeria, 2023. "Exploring the feasibility of Europe’s renewable expansion plans based on their profitability in the market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    6. Beatriz de Souza Mello Gonçalves & Flávio Leonel de Carvalho & Paula de Camargo Fiorini, 2022. "Circular Economy and Financial Aspects: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-41, March.
    7. Assunta Di Vaio & Sohail Hasan & Rosa Palladino & Rohail Hassan, 2023. "The transition towards circular economy and waste within accounting and accountability models: a systematic literature review and conceptual framework," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 734-810, January.
    8. Claudia Marcela Betancourt Morales & Jhon Wilder Zartha Sossa, 2020. "Circular economy in Latin America: A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2479-2497, September.
    9. Finke, Jonas & Bertsch, Valentin, 2023. "Implementing a highly adaptable method for the multi-objective optimisation of energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    10. Wiwik Utami & Lucky Nugroho & Kelum Jayasinghe, 2021. "Carbon Credit Risk Mitigation of Deforestation: A Study on the Performance of P2H Products and Services in Indonesia," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 12(2), pages 125-137, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:129:y:2019:i:c:p:168-172. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.