Biomass in a low-carbon economy

The 3C (or Combat Climate Change) Business Leaders Initiative and the Stockholm Environment Institute recently released a full report and policy brief that gauges the availability of biomass for low-carbon energy and other uses in the context of sustainability and competing demands. It is worth a look.

It starts by acknowledging that biomass production is constrained by land and water availability, by soils’ ability to produce biomass, and by the need to return some biomass to the land to retain nutrients and soil moisture, as well as by competing uses and by the need to reduce emissions from land conversion and agriculture.

The authors then explore four scenarios: a ‘Single Bottom Line’ driven primarily by market forces; ‘Meeting the Climate Challenge’, focused entirely on curbing emissions; ‘Feeding the Planet’, focused on increasing food production; and a ‘Sustainability Transition’ that uses biomass for food, energy, industrial materials, and more.

They find that while all of the scenarios require trade-offs, the latter could yield great benefits, helping address the urgent climate problem while spurring improvements in agriculture to boost food production and result in new agricultural products. The transition could also spur business innovation and economic growth.