Jessica Zionts

Jul 20, 2023 | wri.org | Tim Searchinger |Liqing Peng |Jessica Zionts |Richard Waite

In this report, WRI researchers explore how rising demand for food, wood and shelter is squeezing land that’s needed for storing carbon and protecting biodiversity. This research uses new modeling to give a true global picture of the carbon opportunity costs for land use and proposes a four-pronged approach–produce, protect, reduce, restore–for sustainably managing the world’s finite land.

Jul 19, 2023 | wri.org | Tim Searchinger |Liqing Peng |Richard Waite |Jessica Zionts

Because concrete and steel used to construct buildings are a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions, there is growing interest in “mass timber” — a supposedly lower-carbon option — to replace them. New ways of gluing pieces of wood together to form strong beams and structural panels provide opportunities to use wood even in tall buildings. But new research finds that using wood in construction is likely to increase emissions for many decades, even relative to using concrete and steel.