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Bioenergy, Land Use Change and Climate Change Mitigation - Background Technical Report

The major opportunities to reduce fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions involve improving the efficiency with which energy is used and making the transition to alternative sources of energy and materials. These include increasing the sustainable use of biomass for the production of biomaterials, heat and power, and for transport. Two recent reports* concluded that, when responsibly developed, bioenergy can make an important contribution to energy and climate policy, and can also contribute to social and economic development objectives. Even so, there is still an ongoing discussion about the role of sustainable bioenergy in the future. This concerns both environmental and socio-economic aspects, and involves a wide set of issues and many contrasting viewpoints.This report discusses one much-debated issue, the connection between bioenergy and Land Use Change (LUC) and especially whether there is a risk that Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with LUC could significantly undermine the climate change mitigation benefits of bioenergy, and how this risk can be minimised.

Bioenergy Category
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