Possibilities for near-term bioenergy production and GHG-mitigation through sustainable intensification of agriculture and forestry in Denmark

• Published in: Environmental research letters Vol. 12; no. 11; pp. 114032 - 114038
• Main Authors: Larsen, Søren, Bentsen, Niclas S, Dalgaard, Tommy, Jørgensen, Uffe, Olesen, Jørgen E, Felby, Claus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Agriculture; Alternative energy sources; bioenergy; Biomass; Biorefineries; biorefinery; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Energy consumption; Energy industry; Environmental impact; Food production; Forestry; GHG mitigation; Greenhouse gases; Net Primary Productivity; Primary production; Renewable energy; sustainable intensification
• ISSN: 1748-9326; 1748-9326
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aa9001

To mitigate climate change it is necessary to further increase the deployment of renewable energy, including bioenergy. This analysis shows how this can be achieved in Danish agriculture and forestry before 2020. The key is a sustainable intensification and we show through three scenarios how it is possible to increase production while at the same time decreasing environmental impact and with only minor consequences on food and feed production. An additional ~10 Tg biomass can be available in 2020 for the Danish energy sector. By converting the biomass in a biorefinery concept it is possible to supply relevant, domestically produced energy carriers that amounts to ~5%−13% of 2020 Danish energy consumption. This has the potential to reduce the GHG emissions with 13%−21% of 2020 emissions. These results are possible because Danish net primary production and the human appropriation hereof can be increased. We show that biomass for bioenergy has a large near-term potential to supply relevant energy carriers to the society while at the same time achieving significant GHG emission mitigation.