Sustainable bioenergy: current status and outlook

Mar 2009

The study is based on the fact that the production of renewable raw materials (biomass) and their application range are significantly increasing at present as a result of ambitious growth objectives adopted in Germany, the EU, the U.S., as well as several developing countries. Low-cost imports from third countries are leading to a steady rise in global trade with biogenic resources and energy carriers. This development results in conflicts between ecological and social objectives which might counteract the political efforts to protect the climate, biodiversity and resources – not only in Europe, but also at the international level. For this reason, viable, internationally negotiable strategies and instruments have to be developed in order to avoid or at least significantly reduce potential conflicts of objectives of increasing biomass use.
The project is based on current research and is aimed at working out concrete proposals for standards and certification systems and their implementation at the national, European and global level in a dialog with relevant stakeholders as an input to international processes. Furthermore, ongoing national policy consulting as well as participation in and organization of national, European and international conferences and workshops are issues covered by the project team.
The present report summarizes the project results achieved so far in different subject related chapters:
• Which international strategy holds promise for globally sustainable biomass (Chapter 2)?
• What is the balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from bioenergy with respect to possible land use changes (Chapter 3)?
• How can negative effects of biomass cultivation on biodiversity be successfully reduced (Chapter 4)?
• What are the effects of bioenergy on the resource of water (Chapter 5)?
• What is the potential of unused areas (Chapter 6)?
• How does global biomass trade develop, and what are legal framework conditions of such trade (Chapter 7)?
• Are sustainability standards for bioenergy the right answer (Chapter 8)?
Chapter 9 provides a short outlook on further work to be carried out until the end of 2009.
The Annex gives important abbreviations, strategy issues and working hypotheses as well as information on international cooperation and representation of the project, and finally a list of available working papers.

By: Öko-Institut – IFEU, Institute for Energy and Environment Research

 
download this document:   342 kb
home