Annie Levasseur

Forest bioenergy is often considered as an alternative to fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, to make sure that forest bioenergy pathways really lead to potential climate benefits, a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach must be used. In this presentation, we will see how LCA can be applied to assess forest bioenergy pathways, and to compare their carbon balance to that of the fossil fuels they substitute. We will also discuss a few challenges associated with LCA of forest bioenergy such as biogenic carbon accounting and potential carbon debt.

Speaker Biography 

Dr. Annie Levasseur, Eng., Ph.D. is a Professor within the Deparment of Construction Engineering at École de technologie supérieure in Montréal (Canada), and Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Measuring the Impact of Human Activities on Climate Change. She is also the Scientific Director of the Centre for Intersectoral Studies and Research on Circular Economy (CERIEC). She is a Chemical Engineer by training and has worked in the oil refining industry for 8 years prior to her academic career. She is an expert of the LCA methodology, and her research focuses mainly on climate change impacts, including issues related to indicators, biogenic carbon and timing of emissions. In addition to her research activities on environmental impacts modeling, she teaches life cycle assessment and the integration of environmental and sustainability aspects in engineering projects.