Burning Nigerian forests on European barbecues: A carbon footprint and cost comparison between imported Nigerian charcoal and sustainably produced charcoal in the European Union

Abstract

In the last decade, the European Union’s [EUs] charcoal import from Nigeria has increased dramatically. In developing countries such as Nigeria, charcoal production is accompanied with more greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions than in developed countries. This is often the result of an unregulated charcoal sector in developing countries, where charcoal production is associated with uncontrolled harvesting and the use of traditional, inefficient production methods. This research therefore proposes a shift of the EU’s import from Nigerian charcoal to sustainably produced charcoal in the EU, by means of a single-impact life cycle assessment, carbon footprint, and an economic analysis. This research found that in total 147 kilotonnes charcoal is imported by the EU from Nigeria. Secondly, the accompanied GHG emissions of importing charcoal from Nigeria are 14 times larger than importing sustainably produced charcoal from the EU. Finally, that the production price of sustainably produced charcoal in the EU is larger than the import price from Nigeria, making it economically difficult to compete with Nigerian charcoal. The paper therefore proposes policy implementations to make charcoal from the EU more competitive.