IEA Bioenergy report on bioenergy supply chains

In Ireland, IEA Bioenergy released its summary reports on Measuring, Governing, and Gaining Support for Sustainable Bioenergy Supply Chains. These reports summarize the efforts of an inter-task project designed to address the challenges associated with measuring and governing, as well as communicating, how bioenergy systems contribute to sustainable development. A multitude of studies were initiated focusing largely on the agricultural and forestry sectors, and on biogas systems.

The reports offer recommendations for policy makers and others involved with measuring, governing and communicating sustainability of bioenergy. The findings also raised questions that needs further work. The new IEA Bioenergy Task 45 – Climate and sustainability effects of bioenergy within the broader bioeconomy – will, among other, build their work on the results of this project during the 2019-2021 triennium. One key goal of the Task is to increase understanding of the environmental, social and economic effects of producing and using biomass for bioenergy, within the broader bioeconomy. A central aspect concerns the development and application of science-based methodologies and tools for assessing the effects of biobased systems, as well as the communication with stakeholders at various levels.

The project was a collaborative effort between different IEA Bioenergy Tasks (37, 38, 39, 40, 42, and 43) that involved a number of studies focusing largely on the agricultural and forestry sectors.