Over time, biofuels from converted land can repay this carbon debt if their production and combustion have net. Over time, biofuels from converted land can repay this carbon debt if their production and combustion have net ghg emissions that are less than the lifecycle emissions of the fossil fuels they displace. Gsr2014 full report low res free ebook download as pdf file. Much of this land clearing will occur in brazil, china and india, the authors write. Apr 10, 20 the greenhouse gas ghg emissions that may accompany land use change luc from increased biofuel feedstock production are a source of debate in the discussion of drawbacks and advantages of biofuels. Herein, we first demonstrate the carbon mitigation potential from sustainable production of traditional wood products and then analyze the degree to which that performance can be improved by including woody biofuel feedstock collection and processing alternatives. The storage of carbon in a form that does not readily release the carbon to the atmosphere or water.
Biofuel policies in the european union, united kingdom and the united states. Estimates of luc ghg emissions focus mainly on corn ethanol and vary widely. Carbon debt created by some biofuels must be considered in. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt joseph fargione,1 jason hill,2,3 david tilman,2 stephen polasky,2,3 peter hawthorne2 1the nature conservancy, 1101 west river parkway, suite 200, minneapolis, mn 55415, usa. The total amount of land used is not the only concern many scientists have over the largescale use of biofuels. The length of the payback time is sensitive to the type of fossil fuels that wood energy replaces. Harvesting in boreal forests and the biofuel carbon debt. Cifor scientists then calculated the time it would take to repay the carbon debt of each system studied. Environmental news network crop biofuels create carbon debt. This debt is defined as the amount of co2 released during the first 50 years of the process of clearing land for production of biofuel feedstocks. Disadvantages of biofuels land use biofuel information. Greenhouse debt is the measure to which an individual person, incorporated association, business enterprise, government instrumentality or and per neb.
The environmental rationale is premised on greenhouse gas ghg, carbon emissions reduction, which is a matter of contention. Biofuels and carbon debt advanced biofuels and climate. The indirect land use change impacts of biofuels, also known as iluc or iluc pronounced as iluck, relates to the unintended consequence of releasing more carbon emissions due to land use changes around the world induced by the expansion of croplands for ethanol or biodiesel production in response to the increased global demand for biofuels. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food crop based biofuels in brazil, southeast asia, and the united states creates a biofuel carbon debt by releasing 17 to 420 times more co 2 than the annual greenhouse gas ghg reductions that these biofuels would provide by displacing fossil fuels. These emissions were considered to be the carbon debt that was created in the biofuels production chain and this debt must first be repaid through reduced fossil fuel use before there could be net benefits to the atmosphere. Fargione j1, hill j, tilman d, polasky s, hawthorne p. Increasing the understanding of luc ghg impacts associated with both corn and cellulosic ethanol will inform the on. Landuse change and greenhouse gas emissions from corn and. Formatting an ebook for use on a website or for sending by email employing the pdf file format is somewhat painless. Although not yet part of the european unions red, consequential lca results for iluc are being considered for expanding that policys sustainability guidelines.
Most wellliked word processors and page design programs can export towards the pdf file format and those exports generally accurately render the pdf to match the original produced in word, indesign, or whatever. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt request pdf. Request pdf land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide co2 emissions from fossil fuels make. Both conclude that the resulting carbon emissions, released through decomposition or burning of biomass, create a carbon debt that takes decades or even centuries to be paid back through biofuel usage. Means and sds are from monte carlo analyses of literaturebased esti. What is more concerning is what some have come to refer to as the carbon debt. If these mandates were realised, biofuels digest says the global biofuel market would balloon to 227 billion litres by 2020. But replacing forest with biofuel crops will really create a carbon debt. Sustainable biofuel contributions to carbon mitigation and. The land use change impact of biofuels consumed in the eu. Pdf isbn 97895876180 find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Feb 14, 2008 david tilman of the university of minnesota and colleagues proposed a carbon debt for biofuel feedstocks as a corollary to their carbon capture. Document 10221 sprep libraryirc cataloguinginpublication data secretariat of the pacific regional environment programme sprep pacific environment and climate change outlook apia, samoa. Ghg implications of land use and land conversion to biofuel crops.
Carbon debt, biofuel carbon debt allocation, annual carbon repayment rate, and years to repay biofuel carbon debt for nine scenarios of biofuel production. There are various motivations for the policies promoting renewable energy in the us and eu, including energy security, reducing ghg emissions, stimulating innovation that reduces dependence on exhaustible oil and leads to a low carbon economy in the future, and rural economic development. Increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide co2 emissions from fossil fuels make switching to lowcarbon fuels a high priority. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt joseph fargione, 1 jason hill, 2,3 david tilman, 2 stephen polasky, 2,3 peter hawthorne 2 1 the nature conservancy, 1101 west river parkway, suite 200, minneapolis, mn 55415, usa. This issue is challenging to resolve because of critical but difficulttoverify assumptions in lifecycle analysis lca, limits of available data. Indirect land use change impacts of biofuels wikipedia. Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels indirect land use.
And yes, individual biofuel or bioenergy producers could use only new biomass that has recently pulled carbon from the atmosphere although other environmentalists may differ on that or biomass that would otherwise be left to decay and emit the stored carbon anyway. Mar 14, 2018 modeling studies like ours attempt to predict on a farmbyfarm basis where the best opportunities for biofuel crop production and soil carbon storage lie, how much they might cost, and how those. In terms of progress towards these targets, the production of electricity from renewable sources has been increasing over t he past 5 years and was 9. Free, independent weekly newspaper from the byron shire in northern nsw, australia. Jul 29, 2011 public policy supports biofuels for their benefits to agricultural economies, energy security and the environment. Does clearing forest for biofuel create carbon debt. The question then is whether there is enough of this type of biomass to meet. This upfront carbon debt can take centuries to claw back via emissions gradually avoided by using biofuels instead of fossil fuels. Free essys, homework help, flashcards, research papers, book report, term papers, history, science, politics. The amount of methane released is only a very small amount or the carbon equiva lent taken up.
The issue of indirect land use changes iluc caused by the promotion of transport biofuels has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Therefore, wood harvesting is not a carbon neutral activity. Free essays, homework help, flashcards, research papers, book reports, term papers, history, science, politics. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food cropbased biofuels in brazil, southeast asia, and the united states creates a biofuel carbon debt by releasing. Until the carbon debt is repaid, biofuels from converted lands have greater ghg impacts than those of the fossil fuels they displace. All living biomass above the soil including stem, stump. A zero carbon biofuel 100 percent reduction compared to. Ending land clearing would compete with renewables for carbon. Teeb foundations ecology and economics free download pdf. Through model simulations, it is estimated that an increased harvest of a boreal forest will create a biofuel carbon debt that takes 190340 years to repay. Biofuels carbon debt summary in an article entitled land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt, fargione et al. Eleringi toimetised nr 22011 liberalisation of gaasituru. Increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide co2 emissions from fossil fuels make switching to low carbon fuels a high priority. Biofuels policy may be driving direct and indirect loss of.
Sep 04, 2014 biofuels policy may be driving direct and indirect loss of wildlife habitat. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt joseph fargione,1 jason hill,2,3 david tilman,2 stephen polasky,2,3 peter hawthorne2 increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide co 2 emissions from fossil fuels make switching to low carbon fuels a high priority. However, based on combining a geographically detailed database of crop locations and yields along with updated. International survey on bioenergy knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes among young citizens article pdf available in bioenergy research 51. Biofuels in the us and europe are increasing the price of crops, which naturally results in more efforts to clear land. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce foodbased biofuels in brazil, southeast asia, and the united states creates a biofuel carbon debt by releasing 17 to 420 times more co2 than the annual greenhouse gas ghg reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels. May 31, 2017 combined with clearing in other states, analysis by the research firm reputex found that ceasing all land clearing would save between 300m and 650m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions between 2021. Land conversion may induce a biofuel carbon debt, as carbon released from soil and biomass exceeds emission savings compared to the use of fossil fuels fargione et al. Consequently, it is not clear that the carbon stock estimate for an ecosystem is. Science express logo report global warming so what. Fargione and others published land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt find, read and cite all the research you need on. Impacts of land use change due to biofuel crops on carbon. Biofuels can help solve climate change, especially with a. Indirect land use change and climate impact table 1 co2 emissions due to iluc, based on the models considered econometrica, e4tech, lcfs ii, epa, aglink, iiasa, ifpri bau, ifpri ft, expressed as g co2mj biofuel and percentage of carbon emissions of fuel replaced.
Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt science 2008, 319. Effects of us maize ethanol on global land use and greenhouse. This has been described as a carbon debt fargione et al 2008 site carbon is spent on combustion, and takes a period of time to be repaid. The emissions factors used accounted for changes in above and belowground biomass carbon stocks, changes in soil carbon stocks, lost forest sequestration, land clearing with fire, and emissions from rice cultivation. Ecofysiiasae4tech the luc impact of biofuels consumed in the eu 10 2 description of the modelling baseline in this study, the luc impacts of the european biofuel policy are assessed by comparing different biofuel demand scenarios with a baseline scenario see figure 11 in chapter 3. Judges notice impact of climate change on wine quality the quality of wines worldwide is being affected by climate change and critics and judges are already noticing. Biofuel carbon debt may take centuries to repay chemistry world. Emissions from land use change due to increased biofuel. Biofuels are a potential low carbon energy source, but whether biofuels offer carbon savings depends on how they are produced. Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt researchgate. The worlds soil and plant biomass collectively store about 2. Gibbs previous findings asserted that the carbon debt incurred from cutting down a tropical forest could take several centuries or even millennia to repay through carbon savings produced from the. Methodological issues regarding biofuels and carbon uptake mdpi.
Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt jason hill, ph. The emissions caused by the conversion process can be directly linked to the biofuel load and thus be allocated to the specific carbon balance of that biofuel. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food cropbased biofuels in brazil, southeast asia, and. The new analyses show that large amounts of trapped carbon are released into the atmosphere when vegetation burns or decays as land is cleared.
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