On the global limits of bioenergy and land use for climate change mitigation

What is it about?

Abstract: Across energy, agricultural and forestry landscapes, the production of biomass for energy has emerged as a controversial driver of land-use change. We present a novel, simple methodology, to probe the potential global sustainability limits of bioenergy over time for energy provision and climate change mitigation using a complex-systems approach for assessing land-use dynamics. Primary biomass that could provide between 70 EJ year−1 and 360 EJ year−1, globally, by 2050 was simulated in the context of different land-use futures, food diet patterns and climate change mitigation efforts. Our simulations also show ranges of potential greenhouse gas emissions for agriculture, forestry and other land uses by 2050, including not only above-ground biomass-related emissions, but also from changes in soil carbon, from as high as 24 GtCO2eq year−1 to as low as minus 21 GtCO2eq year−1, which would represent a significant source of negative emissions. Based on the modelling simulations, the discussions offer novel insights about bioenergy as part of a broader integrated system. Whilst there are sustainability limits to the scale of bioenergy provision, they are dynamic over time, being responsive to land management options deployed worldwide.

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Why is it important?

With time running out to address climate change in any meaningful way we set out to evaluate what the potential for bioenergy could be as one tool in the diverse toolbox of options. We used a novel, whole systems, global scale model (www.globalcalculator.org) to help provide quantitative estimates of the scale of potential bioenergy provision and the consequential impacts that could have on land use / land cover, food provision and energy provision, to help evaluate bioenergy.

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