Latest models say almost all of Australia needed for bioenergy crops

In Germany, models foresee a 10 to 30-fold rise in agricultural land devoted to bioenergy according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change that was referred to by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Most IPCC scenarios foresee a major increase in land area for cultivating bioenergy crops by 2050 – up to 724 million hectares in all, an area almost the size of Australia.

“The key issue here is: where would this huge amount of new land come from?” asked Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. “Is there currently such a large amount of ‘marginal land’ available or would this compete with biodiversity? Some scientists argue that there is very little marginal land left. This important issue needs to be clarified, but the demand for land for energy will almost certainly increase, with negative consequences for biodiversity.”