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KNOWLEDGE FOR POLICY

Supporting policy with scientific evidence

We mobilise people and resources to create, curate, make sense of and use knowledge to inform policymaking across Europe.

Glossary item | 12 February 2018

Carbon debt

Bioeconomy

The initial emission of biogenic-CO2 from forest bioenergy when it is higher than the emissions from a reference fossil system. It is called debt because the forest re-growth combined with the continuous substitution of fossil fuels may, in time, repay the “debt”.