It's irritating that the scientists tend to forget about the other half of the picture, and the outcome is often false information, a bunch of bad decisions, etc...
I mean the leaves and branches can be collected, buried, fed to worms. But even if briquettes are made foe heating, the released CO2 is no more than it was, and is going to be recaptured in the next iteration.
https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/how-earthworms-cut-their...