Dutch researchers create maps of GHG emissions from biofuel production

In the Netherlands, a team of scientists charted greenhouse gas emissions resulting from biofuel production, presenting them as global maps. Dedicated crops grown on grasslands, savannahs and abandoned agricultural lands could provide around 30 exajoules per year (i.e. a third of current global energy consumption for transport) with relatively low CO₂ emissions measured over the century as a whole. These findings were published today in Nature Climate Change.

This Nature Climate Change publication is the first study to systematically chart the volume of greenhouse gases released, and present them with respect to the volume of biofuel production. The study was conducted using a global biophysical model, therefore taking account of geographical differences: land Bio-development in Canada’s boreal forest, for example, leads to much higher CO₂ emissions than on Argentinian grasslands. But there are also significant differences within a single country.