Linkages between socio-economic and environmental impacts of bioenergy

Abstract

In the light of a controversial discussion on the net benefit of biofuels and bioenergy, the European Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC, RED)-which sets out a mandatory target for the share of renewable energy in the transport sector (10 % by 2020)-has established a number of mandatory sustainability criteria, which biofuels and bioliquids have to meet to be able to be counted towards the target. However, these mandatory sustainability criteria so far only address selected environmental impacts (greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity) and omit impacts on soil, water, and air as well as GHG emissions due to indirect land-use change (iLUC). Social and socio-economic impacts are not covered at all. The latter gap was addressed by the EU-FP7-funded Global-Bio-Pact project. The project's main aim was to improve and harmonize global sustainability certification systems for biomass production, conversion systems and trade in order to prevent negative socio-economic impacts. Within the project, linkages between socio-economic and environmental impacts of biofuels/bioenergy and bio-based products were analyzed in order to avoid an increase of negative environmental impacts while trying to prevent negative socio-economic impacts. After an introduction and some insights into the environmental impacts of biofuels/bioenergy and bio-based products, this chapter presents the results of a SWOT analysis (analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), revealing trade-offs as well as positive and negative correlations between socio-economic and environmental impacts. These linkages are subsequently interpreted using the concept of ecosystem services. Finally, conclusions are drawn and a recommendation is made how the current list of mandatory sustainability criteria in the RED could be amended.