Serious greenhouse-gas accounting error related to bioenergy identified
The Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (EEA) unanimously passed an opinion calling for 'a major revision of EU policies and directives related to bioenergy.'
Major international efforts are under way to replace fossil energy with biomass in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Several EU directives encourage bioenergy use based on the premise that biomass combustion would not add CO2 to the atmosphere.
According to an opinion passed by the Scientific Committee of the EEA, "[t]his mistaken assumption results in a serious accounting error (see: http://www.eea.europa.eu/about-us/governance/scientific-committee/sc-opinions/opinions-on-scientific-issues/sc-opinion-on-greenhouse-gas).
It is widely assumed that biomass combustion would be inherently 'carbon neutral' because it only releases carbon taken from the atmosphere during plant growth. However, this assumption is not correct and results in a form of double-counting, as it ignores the fact that using land to produce plants for energy typically means that this land is not producing plants for other purposes, including carbon otherwise sequestered. Present EU rules do not properly account for indirect land use change in the context of bioenergy policies and do therefore not consider the full GHG effects of bioenergy.
The opinion provides an in-depth discussion on this accounting error. It concludes that the potential consequences of the incorrect GHG accounting are 'immense' and may even result in increased carbon emissions when fossil energy is replaced by bioenergy - which would accelerate global warming. Various degrees of the likely accounting errors are identified, depending on the source of biomass. The opinion also discusses the implications of correct GHG accounting for global bioenergy potentials and the food vs. fuel debate.
The Scientific Committee recommends that: * European Union regulations and policy targets should be revised to encourage bioenergy use only from additional biomass that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, without displacing other ecosystems services such as the provision of food and the production of fibre. * Accounting standards for GHGs should fully reflect all changes in the amount of carbon stored by ecosystems and in the uptake and loss of carbon from them that result from the production and use of bioenergy. * Bioenergy policies should encourage energy production from biomass by-products, wastes and residues (except if those are needed to sustain soil fertility). Bioenergy policies should also promote the integrated production of biomass that adds to, rather than displaces, food production. * Decision makers and stakeholders worldwide should adjust global expectations of bioenergy use to levels based on the planet's capacity to generate additional biomass, without jeopardizing natural ecosystems. Contacts: Helmut Haberl [email protected] +43 699 140 776 58 liberal_650 Detlef Sprinz [email protected] +49 (176) 64 61 80 47 Detlef F. Sprinz Chairman, Scientific Committee, European Environment Agency -- _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Detlef F. Sprinz, Ph.D. Senior Scientist --- Potsdam Institute Professor--- University of Potsdam Chairman ---ScientificCommittee, European Environment Agency PIK - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Transdisciplinary Concepts & Methods (RD IV) P.O. Box 60 12 03 14412 Potsdam, Germany Voice: +49 (331) 288-2555/-2035 (secr.) [email protected] www.sprinz.org <http://www.sprinz.org/>
