Bioenergy production and sustainable development: science base for policy-making remains limited
Reviewartikel, 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
Författare
C. Robledo-Abad
Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
H.J. Althaus
Lifecycle Consulting Althaus
Foundation for Global Sustainability (ffgs)
Göran Berndes
Chalmers, Energi och miljö, Fysisk resursteori
S. Bolwig
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)
E. Corbera
Institut de Ciencia i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)-UAB
F. Creutzig
Technische Universität Berlin
J. Garcia-Ulloa
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
A. Geddes
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
J. S. Gregg
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)
H. Haberl
Alpen-Adria Universitaet (AAU)
S. Hanger
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
Internationales Institut fuer Angewandte Systemanalyse
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
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)
H. Lotze-Campen
Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
B. Muys
KU Leuven
Maria Nordborg
Chalmers, Energi och miljö, Fysisk resursteori
Maria Ölund
Göteborgs universitet
B. Orlowsky
Climate-Babel
A. Popp
Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK)
J. Portugal-Pereira
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
J. Reinhard
Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Empa)
L. Scheiffle
Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK)
P. Smith
University of Aberdeen
GCB Bioenergy
1757-1693 (ISSN) 1757-1707 (eISSN)
Vol. 9 3 541-556Drivkrafter
Hållbar utveckling
Styrkeområden
Energi
Ämneskategorier
Annan samhällsvetenskap
Energisystem
Miljövetenskap
DOI
10.1111/gcbb.12338
PubMed
28331552