Accounting for indirect land-use changes in GHG balances of biofuels

Mar 2008

Increased demand for biofuels is expected to produce changes in the present land-use configuration. Furthermore there is a growing concern about the effect of land-use change on biodiversity, food supply, soil and water quality. Biofuels production on current land and use of biomass in a given region can induce displacement of activities and land-use changes elsewhere. This effect is known as indirect land-use change (ILUC). Due to changes in the carbon stock of the soil and the biomass, indirect land-use change has consequences in the GHG balance of a biofuel. Indirect land-use change has not been assessed till now and its effect on GHG emissions has not been included until present in this type of evaluation. The reason is that the degree of inaccuracy is still too high. Due to the potential significance of ILUC emissions on the GHG balance of a biofuel pathway, different authors have stated the need for further research works.
The USA and EU governments have also expressed the need for studying this effect
Current research is centred on four main questions:
- How to quantify indirect land-use?
- How to calculate GHG emissions from ILUC?
- How to include them in a LCA?
- How to account for them in Carbon reporting initiatives?
The present report reviews the current effort made worldwide to address this issue. A description of land-use concepts is first provided followed by a classification of ILUC sources .Then, a discussion on the implications of including ILUC emissions in the GHG balance of biofuel pathways and a review of methodologies being developed to quantify indirect land-use change are presented. The question of methodological choices are address in LCA to account for ILUC and the approaches to account for this effect in carbon reporting initiatives are discussed. Finally, recommendations and further research work are described.

By: E. Gnansounou, L. Panichelli, A. Dauriat, J.D. Villegas (EPFL)

 
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