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Chapter 20 - Land and Water: Linkages to Bioenergy
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- By Suani T. Coelho, National Reference Center on Biomass, University of São Paulo, Olivia Agbenyega, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Astrid Agostini, Food and Agriculture Organization, Karl-Heinz Erb, Klagenfurt University, Helmut Haberl, Klagenfurt University, Monique Hoogwijk, Ecofys, Rattan Lal, The Ohio State University, Oswaldo Lucon, São Paulo State Environment Agency, Omar Masera, National Autonomous University, Jos É Roberto Moreira, Biomass Users Network, Gunilla Björklund, Uppsala University, Fridolin Krausmann, Klagenfurt University, Siwa Msangi, International Food Policy Research Institute, Christoph Plutzar, Klagenfurt University, Rik Leemans, Wageningen University
- Global Energy Assessment Writing Team
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- Book:
- Global Energy Assessment
- Published online:
- 05 September 2012
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- 27 August 2012, pp 1459-1526
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Summary
Executive Summary
Sustainably managing limited resources, such as productive land areas and available freshwater, will be one of the world's most pressing challenges in the coming years. Population increases and economic growth will significantly influence humanity's future demand for land and water for different uses. In particular, changes in food and energy use will have substantial environmental impacts. They will also influence each other in many ways. At the same time, the production of food and energy, and the water resources they require, will be affected by global climate change. Sustainability issues arising from competition and synergies between future production of bioenergy and food, and related water use, are highly important in this context.
Population growth is one of the factors contributing to increased demand for land and water. While the world's population has approximately doubled since the 1960s, global economic activity has increased approximately 40 fold. Since growth in incomes is strongly correlated with increased consumption of animal-derived food (meat, milk, eggs), the combination of population increases and economic growth will likely result in increased feed and food production. This will drive up pressures on land and water resources if not counteracted by innovations that reduce land and water use. Social inequities are increasing as well, with both very rich and very poor populations often practicing ‘inefficient’ methods of using land and water.
Chapter 10 - Energy End-Use: Buildings
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- By Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Central European University, Nick Eyre, Oxford University, Peter Graham, University of New South Wales, Danny Harvey, University of Toronto, Edgar Hertwich, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Yi Jiang, Tsinghua University, Christian Kornevall, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Mili Majumdar, The Energy and Resources Institute, James E. McMahon, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sevastianos Mirasgedis, National Observatory of Athens, Shuzo Murakami, Keio University, Aleksandra Novikova, Climate Policy Initiative and German Institute for Economic Research, Kathryn Janda, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, Omar Masera, National Autonomous University, Michael McNeil, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ksenia Petrichenko, Central European University, Sergio Tirado Herrero, Central European University, Eberhard Jochem, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research
- Global Energy Assessment Writing Team
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- Book:
- Global Energy Assessment
- Published online:
- 05 September 2012
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- 27 August 2012, pp 649-760
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Summary
Executive Summary
Buildings are key to a sustainable future because their design, construction, operation, and the activities in buildings are significant contributors to energy-related sustainability challenges – reducing energy demand in buildings can play one of the most important roles in solving these challenges. More specifically:
The buildings sector and people's activities in buildings are responsible for approximately 31% of global final energy demand, approximately one-third of energy-related CO2 emissions, approximately two-thirds of halocarbon, and approximately 25–33% of black carbon emissions.
Several energy-related problems affecting human health and productivity take place in buildings, including mortality and morbidity due to poor indoor air quality or inadequate indoor temperatures. Therefore, improving buildings and their equipment offers one of the entry points to addressing these challenges.
More efficient energy and material use, as well as sustainable energy supply in buildings, are critical to tackling the sustainability-related challenges outlined in the GEA. Recent major advances in building design, know-how, technology, and policy have made it possible for global building energy use to decline significantly. A number of lowenergy and passive buildings, both retrofitted and newly constructed, already exist, demonstrating that low level of building energy performance is achievable. With the application of on-site and community-scale renewable energy sources, several buildings and communities could become zero-net-energy users and zero-greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, or net energy suppliers.
Recent advances in materials and know-how make new buildings that use 10–40% of the final heating and cooling energy of conventional new buildings cost-effective in all world regions and climate zones.
5 - The challenges of Estimating Tropical Deforestation due to Biofuel Expansion
- from Part One - Global Overview
- Edited by Alexandros Gasparatos, United Nations University, Tokyo, Per Stromberg
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- Book:
- Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels
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- 05 September 2012
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- 06 August 2012, pp 90-108
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Contributors
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- By Ricardo Abramovay, Bothwell Batidzirai, Ryan Blanchard, Gareth D. Borman, Matteo Borzoni, Miguel Carriquiry, Mark Elder, Amani Elobeid, Karl-Heinz Erb, Colin Everson, Jacinto F. Fabiosa, Yan Gao, John Garcia-Ulloa, Alexandros Gasparatos, P. Winnie Gerbens-Leenes, Mark B. Gush, Helmut Haberl, Jason Hill, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Francis X. Johnson, Lian Pin Koh, Fridolin Krausmann, Christian Lauk, Janice S. H. Lee, Markku Lehtonen, Omar Masera, Andreas Mayer, Siwa Msangi, Christoph Plutzar, Stephen Polasky, Jane Romero, Daisuke Sano, Margaret Skutsch, Julia Steinberger, Per Stromberg, Anne Sugrue, Theo H. van der Meer, Graham P. Von Maltitz, Kristina Wagstrom
- Edited by Alexandros Gasparatos, United Nations University, Tokyo, Per Stromberg
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- Book:
- Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels
- Published online:
- 05 September 2012
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- 06 August 2012, pp vii-x
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Chapter 2 - Bioenergy
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- By Helena Chum, Andre Faaij, José Moreira, Göran Berndes, Parveen Dhamija, Hongmin Dong, Benoît Gabrielle, Alison Goss Eng, Wolfgang Lucht, Maxwell Mapako, Omar Masera Cerutti, Terry McIntyre, Tomoaki Minowa, Kim Pingoud, Richard Bain, Ranyee Chiang, David Dawe, Garvin Heath, Martin Junginger, Martin Patel, Joyce Yang, Ethan Warner, David Paré, Suzana Kahn Ribeiro
- Edited by Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Susanne Kadner, Timm Zwickel, Patrick Eickemeier, Gerrit Hansen, Steffen Schlömer, Christoph von Stechow, Patrick Matschoss
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- Book:
- Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
- Published online:
- 05 December 2011
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- 21 November 2011, pp 209-332
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Summary
Executive Summary
Bioenergy has a significant greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential, provided that the resources are developed sustainably and that efficient bioenergy systems are used. Certain current systems and key future options including perennial cropping systems, use of biomass residues and wastes and advanced conversion systems are able to deliver 80 to 90% emission reductions compared to the fossil energy baseline. However, land use conversion and forest management that lead to a loss of carbon stocks (direct) in addition to indirect land use change (d+iLUC) effects can lessen, and in some cases more than neutralize, the net positive GHG mitigation impacts. Impacts of climate change through temperature increases, rainfall pattern changes and increased frequency of extreme events will influence and interact with biomass resource potential. This interaction is still poorly understood, but it is likely to exhibit strong regional differences. Climate change impacts on biomass feedstock production exist but if global temperature rise is limited to less than 2°C compared with the pre-industrial record, it may pose few constraints. Combining adaptation measures with biomass resource production can offer more sustainable opportunities for bioenergy and perennial cropping systems.
Biomass is a primary source of food, fodder and fibre and as a renewable energy (RE) source provided about 10.2% (50.3 EJ) of global total primary energy supply (TPES) in 2008. Traditional use of wood, straws, charcoal, dung and other manures for cooking, space heating and lighting by generally poorer populations in developing countries accounts for about 30.7 EJ, and another 20 to 40% occurs in unaccounted informal sectors including charcoal production and distribution.