Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment
Review article, 2015
Bioenergy deployment offers significant potential for climate change mitigation, but also carries considerable risks. In this review, we bring together perspectives of various communities involved in the research and regulation of bioenergy deployment in the context of climate change mitigation: Land-use and energy experts, land-use and integrated assessment modelers, human geographers, ecosystem researchers, climate scientists and two different strands of life-cycle assessment experts. We summarize technological options, outline the state-of-the-art knowledge on various climate effects, provide an update on estimates of technical resource potential and comprehensively identify sustainability effects. Cellulosic feedstocks, increased end-use efficiency, improved land carbon-stock management and residue use, and, when fully developed, BECCS appear as the most promising options, depending on development costs, implementation, learning, and risk management. Combined heat and power, efficient biomass cookstoves and small-scale power generation for rural areas can help to promote energy access and sustainable development, along with reduced emissions. We estimate the sustainable technical potential as up to 100EJ: high agreement; 100-300EJ: medium agreement; above 300EJ: low agreement. Stabilization scenarios indicate that bioenergy may supply from 10 to 245EJyr(-1) to global primary energy supply by 2050. Models indicate that, if technological and governance preconditions are met, large-scale deployment (>200EJ), together with BECCS, could help to keep global warming below 2 degrees degrees of preindustrial levels; but such high deployment of land-intensive bioenergy feedstocks could also lead to detrimental climate effects, negatively impact ecosystems, biodiversity and livelihoods. The integration of bioenergy systems into agriculture and forest landscapes can improve land and water use efficiency and help address concerns about environmental impacts. We conclude that the high variability in pathways, uncertainties in technological development and ambiguity in political decision render forecasts on deployment levels and climate effects very difficult. However, uncertainty about projections should not preclude pursuing beneficial bioenergy options.
life-cycle analysis
sustainability
technologies
technical potential
climate change mitigation
land use
Author
F. Creutzig
Technische Universität Berlin
N. H. Ravindranath
Indian Institute of Science
Göran Berndes
Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
S. Bolwig
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
R. Bright
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
F. Cherubini
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
H. Chum
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
E. Corbera
Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)-UAB
M. Delucchi
University of California
A. Faaij
University of Groningen
J. Fargione
Nature Conservancy
H. Haberl
Humboldt University of Berlin
Alpen-Adria Universitaet (AAU)
G. Heath
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
O. Lucon
Secretariat for infrastructure and Environment
R. Plevin
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
A. Popp
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
C. Robledo-Abad
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
S. Rose
University of Aberdeen
P. Smith
University of California
A. H. Stromman
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
S. Suh
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
O. Masera
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
GCB Bioenergy
1757-1693 (ISSN) 1757-1707 (eISSN)
Vol. 7 5 916-944Driving Forces
Sustainable development
Subject Categories
Renewable Bioenergy Research
Agricultural Science
Bioenergy
Climate Research
DOI
10.1111/gcbb.12205