Measuring the socioeconomic sustainability of bioenergy

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To be considered sustainable, bioenergy systems should demonstrate social, economic, and environmental benefits, while putting safeguards against potential negative impacts. This can be measured through a variety of criteria and indicators. The intensity of different impacts will greatly depend on the context from where biomass is sourced and converted to bioenergy. The literature has many examples of studies that take different positions on the sustainability of bioenergy systems, and these differences often emerge because of differences in study scope, geographic location, and the specific indicators being tracked. This makes it difficult to understand the ability of bioenergy systems to meet specific sustainability criteria, opening the sector to widespread debate.
On September 17, 2024 (12:00-14:00 UTC) the IEA Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme is hosting an expert workshop to explore the ability of bioenergy systems to meet indicators of socioeconomic sustainability. This interactive workshop will feature a short presentation summarizing recent work carried out on behalf of IEA Bioenergy by Prof. Warren Mabee (Queen’s University, Canada) exploring this topic. There will be two interactive breakout activities in which we will ask participants to rank specific indicators for socioeconomic sustainability of bioenergy, and identify and address the challenges associated with the implementation of these indicators. The results of this work will be used to finalize a report to IEA Bioenergy to guide its future activities. The report will be made available to all participants.

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