Bioenergy production and sustainable development: science base for policy-making remains limited
Review article, 2017
The possibility of using bioenergy as a climate change mitigation measure has sparked a discussion of whether and how bioenergy production contributes to sustainable development. We undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to illuminate this relationship and found a limited scientific basis for policy-making. Our results indicate that knowledge on the sustainable development impacts of bioenergy production is concentrated in a few well-studied countries, focuses on environmental and economic impacts, and mostly relates to dedicated agricultural biomass plantations. The scope and methodological approaches in studies differ widely and only a small share of the studies sufficiently reports on context and/or baseline conditions, which makes it difficult to get a general understanding of the attribution of impacts. Nevertheless we identified regional patterns of positive or negative impacts for all categories – environmental, economic, institutional, social and technological. In general, economic and technological impacts were more frequently reported as positive, while social and environmental impacts were more frequently reported as negative (with the exception of impacts on direct substitution of GHG emission from fossil fuel). More focused and transparent research is needed to validate these patterns and develop a strong science underpinning for establishing policies and governance agreements that prevent/mitigate negative and promote positive impacts from bioenergy production.
mitigation
forestry
agriculture
sustainable development
food security
bioenergy
Author
C. Robledo-Abad
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
H.J. Althaus
Lifecycle Consulting Althaus
Foundation for Global Sustainability (ffgs)
Göran Berndes
Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
S. Bolwig
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
E. Corbera
Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)-UAB
F. Creutzig
Technische Universität Berlin
J. Garcia-Ulloa
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
A. Geddes
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
J. S. Gregg
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
H. Haberl
Alpen-Adria Universitaet (AAU)
S. Hanger
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
R. Harper
Murdoch University
C. Hunsberger
Western University
R. K. Larsen
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
C. Lauk
Alpen-Adria Universitaet (AAU)
S. Leitner
Alpen-Adria Universitaet (AAU)
J. Lilliestam
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
H. Lotze-Campen
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Humboldt University of Berlin
B. Muys
KU Leuven
Maria Nordborg
Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
Maria Ölund
University of Gothenburg
B. Orlowsky
Climate-Babel
A. Popp
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
J. Portugal-Pereira
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
J. Reinhard
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
L. Scheiffle
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
P. Smith
University of Aberdeen
GCB Bioenergy
1757-1693 (ISSN) 1757-1707 (eISSN)
Vol. 9 3 541-556Driving Forces
Sustainable development
Areas of Advance
Energy
Subject Categories
Other Social Sciences
Energy Systems
Environmental Sciences
DOI
10.1111/gcbb.12338
PubMed
28331552