The role of bioenergy for climate and sustainable development targets

IEA has recently highlighted different projects in their initiative “Today in the Lab – Tomorrow in Energy?” One of the projects is about Investigating the role of bioenergy in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, with involvement of IEA Bioenergy Task 40 (Deployment), Task 43 (Feedstock supply), Task 44 (Flexible bioenergy) and Task 45 (Sustainability).

This project considers the potential role of bioenergy – the energy obtained from organic material – by examining the synergies, trade‐offs and tensions between deploying bioenergy and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, the project is estimating the most favourable balance between preserving forests because they store carbon and harvesting biomass to replace fossil fuels and resources in industries. The project is analysing how biomass supply systems can advance many societal objectives, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting the environment, ensuring energy security and promoting human wellbeing.

The project will

• show how bioenergy can contribute to sustainable development while fighting climate change;
• help countries to transition away from fossil fuels using local renewable resources;
• develop integrated land management strategies to produce food, materials and energy.

Full project sheet available at: https://www.iea.org/articles/the-role-of-bioenergy-for-climate-and-sustainable-development-targets