Europe's demand for bioenergy is growing, putting increased pressure on wood and arable land. With growth in demand driven mainly by EU climate policies, one could assume that bioenergy delivers significant greenhouse gas (GHG) savings and doesn't damage the environment. Yet two recent studies suggest that this is not the case.
From member states' national renewable energy action plans we know that the use of bioenergy is expected to at least double between 2010 and 2020. Wood will be the most important type of biomass used, covering up to two thirds of the bioenergy use. Bioenergy use is also assumed to continue beyond 2020, according to the European commission's impact assessment of the 2030 climate and energy framework communication. Curiously, after 2020 the commission's modelling assumes that demand will partly shift from wood and imported biomass to energy crops and short rotation coppice grown on agricultural land in the EU. A baffling seven million hectares, an area almost the size of the Czech Republic, would be converted to energy crops according to the commission.
"Studies commissioned by a group of environmental NGOs... raise serious doubts about whether the EU's own supplies of biomass would be able to meet the bioenergy demand assumed by the commission sustainably, without increasing imports and without continuing to rely on wood"
Two recent studies commissioned by a group of environmental NGOs; BirdLife Europe, the European environmental bureau and transport and environment, raise serious doubts about whether the EU's own supplies of biomass would be able to meet the bioenergy demand assumed by the commission sustainably, without increasing imports and without continuing to rely on wood.
Assessing the latest land use data available at EU level, one of the studies estimated that using optimistic calculations a maximum 1.3 million hectares of new land could be used for energy crops without risking food or feed production in the EU being displaced elsewhere, possibly leading to indirect land use change and to the conversion of the EU's remaining natural areas to agriculture. The other study revealed that the potential of woody biomass with low risks to the environment and climate would not match with the demand of the commission's chosen 2030 scenario, unless new policies to enforce more efficient use of wood are put in place.
Naturally the EU is not only dependent of its own natural resources but relying on natural resources from other continents and further increasing the EU's consumption of natural resources beyond its fair share is not a sustainable way forward for climate and energy policies.
The studies also revealed that if the EU is to continue woody biomass use as predicted by the commission's reference scenario until 2030, the yearly emissions coming from the changes in forest carbon stocks due to bioenergy harvesting over a 20 year time period, would be of the same order of magnitude as the annual GHG emission reductions of the EU in the past years (100 to 150 megatons of CO2 equivalent). The use of wood for energy therefore threatens to annul the modest GHG saving efforts of the EU, if no measures are taken to constrain the use of woody bioenergy.
Not all types of biomass that can be used for energy increase GHG emissions and damage the environment. While using stem wood for energy brings little climate benefits compared to fossil fuels, woody residues, side-products and waste can still deliver emissions savings in a policy relevant timeframe. The energy potential from energy crops, if all the land potentially available could be cultivated, is very limited but could still play a role if used efficiently. Turned into biofuels for transport the energy yield of crops would cover only one per cent of the current demand of the transport sector, but if turned into heat, energy yields could add up to between five and 11 per cent of the heat sector's needs.
Still the sustainable potential is limited. The studies show that to develop renewable energies in an ambitious and sustainable way, energy demand needs to be cut. 40 per cent energy savings by 2030 would already be economically feasible.
The commission recently announced that it won't be introducing any new legal proposals to put bioenergy use on a sustainable track for the period until 2020, but to have 'improved biomass policies' in place when we enter the post 2020 era - as the commission suggested in its 2030 communication, work on those policies should have started yesterday already.