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Title: An overview of the Energy Modeling Forum 33rd study: Assessing large-scale global bioenergy deployment for managing climate change

Journal Article · · Climatic Change
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. EPRI
  2. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts
  3. Potsdam Institute for Climate Change
  4. Stanford University
  5. NIES, Japan
  6. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
  7. BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)
  8. Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
+ Show Author Affiliations

Previous studies have projected a significant role for bioenergy in decarbonizing the global economy and helping realize international climate goals such as limiting global average warming to 2°C or 1.5°C. However, with significant variability in bioenergy results and significant concerns about potential environmental and social implications, greater transparency and dedicated assessment of the underlying modeling and results and more detailed understanding of the potential role of bioenergy are needed. Stanford University’s Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) initiated a 33rd study (EMF-33) to explore the viability of large-scale bioenergy as part of a comprehensive climate management strategy. This special issue presents the papers of the EMF-33 study—a multi-year inter-model comparison project designed to understand and assess global, long-run, biomass supply and bioenergy deployment potentials and related uncertainties. Using a novel scenario design with independent biomass supply and bioenergy demand protocols, EMF-33 separately elucidates and explores the modeling of biomass feedstock supplies and bioenergy technologies and their deployment—revealing, comparing, and assessing the modeling that is suggesting that bioenergy could be a key climate containment strategy. This introduction provides an overview of the EMF-33 study design and the overview, thematic, and individual modeling team papers and types of insights that make up this special issue. By providing enhanced transparency and new detailed insights, we hope to inform policy dialogue about the potential role of bioenergy and facilitate new research.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1777177
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-157648
Journal Information:
Climatic Change, Vol. 163
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (17)

Global energy sector emission reductions and bioenergy use: overview of the bioenergy demand phase of the EMF-33 model comparison journal July 2018
Bio-energy and CO2 emission reductions: an integrated land-use and energy sector perspective journal November 2020
Integrating place-specific livelihood and equity outcomes into global assessments of bioenergy deployment journal September 2013
Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment journal July 2014
Bioenergy technologies in long-run climate change mitigation: results from the EMF-33 study journal August 2020
Implications of climate change mitigation strategies on international bioenergy trade journal October 2020
Progress and barriers in understanding and preventing indirect land‐use change journal June 2020
Negative emissions physically needed to keep global warming below 2 °C journal August 2015
Biomass residues as twenty-first century bioenergy feedstock—a comparison of eight integrated assessment models journal September 2019
Food security under high bioenergy demand toward long-term climate goals journal August 2020
Bioenergy cropland expansion may offset positive effects of climate change mitigation for global vertebrate diversity journal December 2018
Large-scale bioenergy production: how to resolve sustainability trade-offs? journal February 2018
EMF-33 insights on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) journal August 2020
Land-use transition for bioenergy and climate stabilization: model comparison of drivers, impacts and interactions with other land use based mitigation options journal September 2013
Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 °C journal March 2018
Bioenergy in energy transformation and climate management journal December 2013
The role of advanced end-use technologies in long-term climate change mitigation: the interlinkage between primary bioenergy and energy end-use journal August 2020

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