UN IPCC report concludes that ILUC emissions are highly uncertain
In Europe, the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE) has announced the findings of a UN IPCC report, “Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment,” which is released today as part of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. The report confirms that bioenergy has a massively positive role to play in society but more research is needed to realise its full potential. The report concludes that existing uncertainties about bioenergy should not preclude society from pursuing beneficial bioenergy options that are available.
The IPCC report finds that estimated ILUC emissions are “highly uncertain, unobservable, unverifiable, and dependent on assumed policy, economic contexts, and inputs used in the modeling”. The report also confirms that measures to address ILUC must incorporate the impacts of ILUC prevention or mitigation strategies, including the impact of forest protection measures, policies and investments to improve agricultural productivity, double cropping, and the use of degraded and marginal lands. The report also crucially recognizes that land use emissions can be reduced through animal feed co-products of biofuels that substitute the need for protein crops imports for animal feed production.
Category: Research
