Edward Smeets

Ecological footprints of Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands

Abstract The ecological footprint (EF) has received much attention as a potential indicator for sustainable development over the last years. In this article, the EF concept has been applied to Benin, Bhutan, Costa Rica and the Netherlands in 1980, 1987 and 1994. The results of the assessment are discussed and used to discuss the current potential and limitations of the EF as a sustainable development indicator. The originally defined methodology has been slightly adapted by the authors, who focus on individual components of the EF (land and carbon dioxide emissions) and use local yields instead of global averages. Although per capita and total land use differs among the four countries, available data suggest increasing land use in all four countries while per capita land use decreases. The EF for carbon dioxide emissions increases for all four countries in both per capita and absolute terms. Differences in productivity, aggregation (of different resources) and multi-functional land use have been shown to be important obstacles in EF application — depending on the assessment objective. However, despite the obstacles, the study concludes that the EF has been successful in providing an interesting basis for discussion on environmental effects of consumption patterns, including those outside the national borders, and on equity concerning resource use.

Biomass and bioenergy supply from Mozambique

Modern biofuels are a promising long-term renewable energy source which has potential to address both environmental impacts and security concerns posed by current dependence on fossil fuels. Energy crops represent the largest potential source of bioenergy feedstocks but land availability is a crucial precondition for this. On the basis of global bioenergy production potential assessments, Mozambique was identified as one of the promising biomass production regions in tropical Africa. It has capacity to produce up to 6.7 EJ (all energy values for fuels in HHV) of bioenergy annually with moderate introduction of agricultural technology and using strict sustainability criteria (i.e., protecting forests and meeting growing food demand). Essential for realising this potential is rationalisation in agriculture and livestock-raising, and potential increases of up to 7 times current productivities can be achieved with moderate technology introduction. Efficient logistics are also essential to ensure competitive biomass supply to the international market. Using six regions of Mozambique as potential sites of biomass production, this study analysed and compared the cost and energy use of supplying pellets, pyrolysis oil and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels to the international market. Production costs of eucalyptus vary from 0.6 to 1.15 Euro/GJ for biomass productivities ranging between 7 and 25 tdm/ha/yr for arid to productive regions. Using Rotterdam harbour as an international destination for biofuels, the lowest delivered biofuel costs are 2.6 Euro/GJ for pellets, 3.2 Euro/GJ for pyrolysis oil and 6.8 Euro/GJ for FT fuels produced via circulating fluidised bed gasification (all originating from Sofala province). Lower costs are achieved for early conversion to pellets and pyrolysis close to biomass plantation sites, in contrast with FT fuels, for which costs are lower with centralised production. Comparison of the three biofuels using FT fuel as a reference (by further conversion of pellets and pyrolysis oil to FT fuels via entrained flow gasification) shows that it is more attractive to densify into and distribute pellets and pyrolysis oil early in the supply chain. FT fuels derived from pellets and pyrolysis oil result in lower fuel costs of 4.5 and 4.8 Euro/GJ respectively. Where biomass feedstock is not limited, large-scale conversion (GWth,in) directly to FT fuels using entrained flow gasification may result in much lower fuel cost.

The global technical and economic potential of bioenergy from salt-affected soils

This study assesses the extent and location of salt-affected soils worldwide and their current land use and cover as well as the current technical and economic potential of biomass production from forestry plantations on these soils (biosaline forestry). The global extent of salt-affected land amounts to approximately 1.1 Gha, of which 14% is classified as forest, wetlands or (inter)nationally protected areas and is considered unavailable for biomass production because of sustainability concerns. For the remaining salt-affected area, this study finds an average biomass yield of 3.1 oven dry ton ha−1 y−1 and a global technical potential of 56 EJ y−1 (equivalent to 11% of current global primary energy consumption). If agricultural land is also considered unavailable because of sustainability concerns, the technical potential decreases to 42 EJ y−1. The global economic potential of biosaline forestry at production costs of 2€ GJ−1 or less is calculated to be 21 EJ y−1 when including agricultural land and 12 EJ y−1 when excluding agricultural land. At production costs of up to 5€ GJ−1, the global economic potential increases to 53 EJ y−1 when including agricultural land and to 39 EJ y−1 when excluding agricultural land. Biosaline forestry may contribute significantly to energy supply in certain regions, e.g., Africa. Biosaline forestry has numerous additional benefits such as the potential to improve soil, generate income from previously low-productive or unproductive land, and soil carbon sequestration. These are important additional reasons for investigating and investing in biosaline forestry.

New Conversion Technologies for Liquid Biofuels Production in Africa

On the longer term, the production of second generation biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass is expected to become economically competitive with gasoline and diesel. A pre-requisite is that several technological hurdles will be overcome and that a large, stable supply of lignocellulosic biomass will be guaranteed. Studies have shown that Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to contribute significantly to the global supply of biomass energy derived from lignocellulosic resources. Due to the high investment costs of establishing large-scale second generation biofuel processing plants, the production and export of pre-treated biomass (e.g. pellets) to industrialised countries is a potentially interesting short-term option. An illustrated example is the production of lignocellulosic biomass in Mozambique which has the capacity to annually contribute up to 2% of global energy supply in the form of bioenergy under a strict sustainability framework. However, rationalisation in agriculture will be essential for realising this potential and efficient logistics are needed to ensure competitive biomass supply.

Keynote Introduction: Traditional and Improved Use of Biomass for Energy in Africa

Traditional biomass energy systems are widely used in Africa, mainly because of the low cost and lack of available alternatives in rural areas. Projections indicate that the (relative) contribution of traditional bioenergy will decrease, but that the total use of traditional biomass energy systems will increase during the coming decades. The efficiencies of wood-fuel (firewood and charcoal) energy systems are usually low and the use of these systems has serious negative consequences, such as indoor air pollution and related health effects, deforestation and the labour intensive and sometimes dangerous process of firewood collection. Improvements in stoves, charcoal production efficiency and switching fuels can increase the efficiency by several tens of percent points and thereby reduce the demand for labour for the collection of firewood and the costs. Other advantages of improved traditional bioenergy systems are reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced indoor air pollution and reduced deforestation. Various initiatives have been successful in implementing the use of improved household stoves, although the results suggest that the success of improved traditional biomass systems depends on the local conditions and socio-economic impacts of these systems.

Evaluating the macroeconomic impacts of bio-based applications in the EU

In 2012, the European Commission (EC) launched the Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan with the objective of establishing a resource efficient and competitive society that reconciles food security with the sustainable use of renewable resources. This report contributes to the plan by evaluating the macroeconomic impacts of bio-based applications in the EU. Such effects can only be evaluated with a computable general equilibrium model such as MAGNET. Four bio-based applications are considered, namely biofuel (second generation), biochemicals, bioelectricity, and biogas (synthetic natural gas). This is done assuming that 1 EJ lignocellulose biomass is converted into fuel, chemicals, electricity and gas and that the final product replaces an equal amount of conventional (e.g. fossil energy) product (on energy basis). The results show that given the assumed efficiency of conversion technology, costs of conversion, biomass price and oil price, the production of second generation biofuel and biochemicals are the only competitive sectors compare to their conventional counterparts in the year 2030 for the EU. In the case of the fuel sectors, it represents a net GDP effect of 5.1 billion US

Jatropha: A Promising Crop for Africa’s Biofuel Production?

while biochemicals generates 6 billion US

Mapping land use changes resulting from biofuel production and the effect of mitigation measures

. A substantial part of this impact can be explained by the increase in wages, since the production of biomass is relatively labour intensive. The resulting increase in wages is transmitted to other sectors in the economy and increases production and consumption. Another important contributor is the lower oil and fuel price as a result of the substitution of oil based fuel production by bio-based fuel production, which in turn benefits the entire economy.

How to measure greenhouse gas emissions by fuel type for binary sustainability standards: Average or Marginal emissions? An example of fertilizer use and corn ethanol

Jatropha has often been proposed as a miracle crop for the production of oil, because of the high yields and low requirements in terms of land quality, climate and crop management. A large number of companies have started with jatropha production in Africa which is projected to increase rapidly. Yet, the sector is not fully developed and therefore the economic viability is unclear. Crucial issues for the economic performance are the crop management system, level of inputs and thereby yield and labour requirements, the price of jatropha seeds, and the business model used (e.g. farmer-centred, plantation model). Other factors influencing the sustainability of jatropha production and use are land use conversions and their resulting impacts on GHG emissions, as well as socio-economic impacts which depend largely on the combination of local socio-economic circumstances and on the business model. Plantations have generally larger negative effects on biodiversity and land issues than farmer-centred models, but larger positive effects on employment levels. Farmer-centred models are generally more pro-poor due to technological spillovers and the larger number of farmers involved. Especially when jatropha products are used to increase energy access, local communities can benefit. More research is required to determine optimised agricultural practices, long-term effects on food security, local prosperity and gender issues and technological development of equipment that can use jatropha products. It should be avoided to replace food crops with jatropha to avoid negative impacts on food security.

An Economic Assessment of the Potential and Costs of Investments in R&D in Agriculture to Avoid Land Use Change and Food Security Effects of Bioenergy

Many of the sustainability concerns of bioenergy are related to direct or indirect land use change (LUC) resulting from bioenergy feedstock production. The environmental and socio‐economic impacts of LUC highly depend on the site‐specific biophysical and socio‐economic conditions. The objective of this study is to spatiotemporally assess the potential LUC dynamics resulting from an increased biofuel demand, the related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the potential effect of LUC mitigation measures. This assessment is demonstrated for LUC dynamics in Brazil towards 2030, considering an increase in the global demand for bioethanol as well as other agricultural commodities. The potential effects of three LUC mitigation measures (increased agricultural productivity, shift to second‐generation ethanol, and strict conservation policies) are evaluated by using a scenario approach. The novel modelling framework developed consists of the global Computable General Equilibrium model MAGNET, the spatiotemporal land use allocation model PLUC, and a GIS‐based carbon module. The modelling simulations illustrate where LUC as a result of an increased global ethanol demand (+26 × 109 L ethanol production in Brazil) is likely to occur. When no measures are taken, sugar cane production is projected to expand mostly at the expense of agricultural land which subsequently leads to the loss of natural vegetation (natural forest and grass and shrubland) in the Cerrado and Amazon. The related losses of above and below ground biomass and soil organic carbon result in the average emission of 26 g CO2‐eq/MJ bioethanol. All LUC mitigation measures show potential to reduce the loss of natural vegetation (18%–96%) as well as the LUC‐related GHG emissions (7%–60%). Although there are several uncertainties regarding the exact location and magnitude of LUC and related GHG emissions, this study shows that the implementation of LUC mitigation measures could have a substantial contribution to the reduction of LUC‐related emissions of bioethanol. However, an integrated approach targeting all land uses is required to obtain substantial and sustained LUC‐related GHG emission reductions in general.