This blog is based on my presentation on Policy and Action for the Irish Bioenergy Association’s annual conference on February 3rd, 2016.
"Back in my day..."
 Cara Augustenborg & John Finnan, Teagasc Miscanthus Trial 2008 Photo Credit: Deutche Welle | My post-doctoral research at University College Dublin from 2007-2011 was focused on the bioenergy sector. It was all the rage, with plenty of funding available for research that could inform Ireland’s agricultural sector in making the transition to bioenergy production to meet the EU Renewable Energy Directive. |
Along the way, I realised that nobody had bothered to consult the farmers of Ireland on whether they were actually interested growing energy crops so, with no budget but some generous media support from the Farmers’ Journal and the Irish Independent, I undertook a bit of qualitative research on ‘Farmers’ Perspectives for the development of a bioenergy industry in Ireland’ (Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 2012).
One might expect and hope that with five years since the time I surveyed Irish farmers, the status of the industry and the opinions of farmers back then would be out of date at this stage, but unfortunately, their opinions are still relevant today: Among the 172 farmers surveyed across Ireland in 2011, lack of a guaranteed market was considered the greatest obstacle to energy crop production. Other significant obstacles identified by farmers included inadequate or unknown profit margin (58%); no long-term guarantees (54%); investment costs (51%); lack of advice or expertise (37%); insufficient infrastructure (35%); and legislation or regulations (32%).
Has anything changed?
 Photo: Irish Independent, 2016 | Only a year ago, the Irish Times reported that policy changes were still needed for bioenergy projects to proceed in Ireland, and a Coillte representative stated there is “absolutely no chance whatsoever we’re going to reach our heat target in the Renewable Energy Directive by 2020.” At the same time, Teagasc reported a significant cut in bioenergy research funding and that farmers who had planted miscanthus were now ploughing up their fields in resignation or committing to supply digesters in Northern Ireland - lost opportunities for Ireland’s efforts to meet renewable targets. |
These “darker days” of bioenergy have made it difficult for the sector to grow in Ireland, but finally, we have an Energy White Paper setting a vision of a 100% renewable energy system and a draft Bioenergy Plan with a commitment to introduce a Renewable Energy Heat Incentive. The recent Energy White Paper shows we’re still a long way from achieving all of our 2020 targets set out in the Renewable Energy Directive. However, the Paris Climate Agreement and Ireland’s own Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act now require the Government to make National Climate Mitigation plans to aggressively reduce emissions. While the last five years have been a case of “kicking the can down the road”, these new tools provide more assurance that the 32nd Dail will be forced to act more swiftly in supporting the Irish bioenergy sector.
The wider implications on growth of the Irish bioenergy sector
Let’s be cautiously optimistic that the right incentives and support could be enacted over the next few years to finally enable the Irish bioenergy industry to help meet Ireland’s EU and international commitments. The primary reason we have these renewable energy targets is to do our fair share to move away from fossil fuels in an effort to address climate change, but it’s important to remember that as every new industry grows, it brings its own share of impacts. There are a few issues I’d like to highlight regarding the wider implications of the growth of the bioenergy sector in Ireland in the hope that they’ll be considered as the sector grows:
1. Bioenergy solves one problem, but can’t afford to cause others: As with any industry, there are potential negative environmental impacts associated with bioenergy production, which can include biodiversity loss, land use change, and impacts on water, soil and air quality from unsustainable intensification of agriculture and forestry practices. For example, in Germany, high nature value grasslands and drained peat lands have been converted to maize cultivation to produce biogas causing both greenhouse gas emissions higher than those resulting from some fossil-based energy sources and declining biodiversity. We risk similar problems here in Ireland when we drain wetlands and bogs for conversion to crop or forestry land. The bioenergy sector must develop within the context of Ireland's commitment to halting biodiversity loss in the Convention on Biodiversity and other commitments to maintain our ecosystem services and natural capital.
2. Bioenergy is part of the solution to a global problem. It’s great to have national targets to give confidence to the bioenergy sector, but ultimately, we need to be mindful of the sector’s primary role in solving a global problem. Whatever we do here in an effort to increase our bioenergy production needs to ensure it doesn’t create more problems elsewhere on the globe. Specifically, I’m referring to the impact of importing biomass such as palm kernels from Malaysia and cocoa husks from Nigeria at our peat burning power plants. These imported biomass feedstocks create additional greenhouse gas emissions from their transport and have no local community benefits for Ireland. Other imported biomass products, such as wood exports from Brazil and Africa, put additional pressure on deforestation and/or drainage of peatlands and contribute to land-grabbing and competition with food production in these countries. Faraway environmental and social impacts are no less real than if they were happening here at home.
3. Bioenergy has its own carbon footprint. The carbon neutrality of bioenergy cannot be assumed, but so far all EU efforts to mitigate climate change are based on this false assumption. With the Paris Agreement about to be ratified, the EU will not be able to guarantee effective carbon emission reductions unless the full carbon footprint of bioenergy is accounted for. Increasing use of forest biomass for energy production requires more logging which reduces in carbon stocks and carbon sequestration. Land use change can also impact the carbon footprint of bioenergy production. The European Commission and European Parliament have already called for the inclusion of indirect land use change in the carbon accounting for biofuels from 2021. Similar carbon accounting requirements could be included from land use change for sustainable bioenergy policy as well.
4. Bioenergy competes with food security. There will always be the dual challenge of land competition between biomass for energy or for food. The EU wants to concentrate on developing biofuels that require less energy and land, such as algae or wastes. This is part of the overall move toward a circular economy where the waste from one industry is used as fuel for the next. Bioenergy technology needs to incorporate this philosophy of cascading design into their plans. This means biomass should be used to create materials and products first, and the energy content recovered after.
5. All bioenergy crops are at the mercy of our changing climate. The floods last month demonstrated how beef and dairy farming will become increasingly difficult in parts of Ireland. In the face of climate risk, farmers need to consider diversifying their income sources to protect against a changing climate. Bioenergy crops will also face new climate risks, and monoculture farming or forestry will not be a good strategy to protect against those risks. We need to see bioenergy farmers or foresters as both contributors to the renewable energy transition and as stewards of our environment and natural capital conservationists. Possibly, they will become our first flood defenders as they have in the Pontbren project in Wales, where upland sheep farmers are also planting mixed native forestry that could reduce downstream flood waters by up to 50% and support biodiversity. We can no longer expect farmers to rely on a single source of income off a product that could be destroyed by inclement weather. In the face of future climate change, that risk is real whether farmers produce beef, dairy, or biomass and we need diverse farming systems to prepare for that risk.
What to expect for our fuels of the future
To avoid negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts both domestically and globally, the expansion of bioenergy production needs to be accompanied by regulations that ensure genuine sustainability. Nationally, we should expect to see a greater emphasis on policy coherence for development. Our climate mitigation plans and bioenergy policies will come under examination for how they impact our Irish Aid efforts. Policies that have demonstrably negative impacts on developing countries will have to be altered.
At the EU level, the Commission has recognised that an improved biomass policy will also be necessary as part of the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. An EU renewable energy package, including a bioenergy sustainability policy for both biomass and biofuels, will be proposed between 2015 and 2017. Understandably, this could limit the role that bioenergy can play in efforts toward full decarbonisation. We simply don’t have the available land for 100% of our renewable energy to be provided entirely by biomass, and the EU is already moving toward a cap on biofuels for transport use for similar reasons.
As part of a sustainable bioenergy policy, it is also possible that the EU will encourage increasingly decentralised energy systems, involving smaller scale, local energy projects with benefits for local communities and rural development. While large scale industrial use of biomass could be discouraged as an inefficient use of biomass resources with little in the way of local, community benefits.
The Paris Agreement has renewed investor confidence in all forms of renewable energy including bioenergy, and I look forward to finally seeing the sector grow from the time when I worked in it. However, as with any sector that reaches maturity, we can expect bioenergy to be subject to closer public scrutiny and environmental regulation as it develops.
We’ve seen how the wind energy sector lost so much ground in Ireland by failing to anticipate public resentment and address potential negative impacts early enough. It is my hope that some of the potential issues above will be addressed and resolved at this early stage in the growth of the Irish bioenergy sector, so that our bioenergy industry can adopt genuinely sustainable practices now rather than having to address them further down the road when solutions become more costly and difficult to implement.
At the EU level, the Commission has recognised that an improved biomass policy will also be necessary as part of the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. An EU renewable energy package, including a bioenergy sustainability policy for both biomass and biofuels, will be proposed between 2015 and 2017. Understandably, this could limit the role that bioenergy can play in efforts toward full decarbonisation. We simply don’t have the available land for 100% of our renewable energy to be provided entirely by biomass, and the EU is already moving toward a cap on biofuels for transport use for similar reasons.
As part of a sustainable bioenergy policy, it is also possible that the EU will encourage increasingly decentralised energy systems, involving smaller scale, local energy projects with benefits for local communities and rural development. While large scale industrial use of biomass could be discouraged as an inefficient use of biomass resources with little in the way of local, community benefits.
The Paris Agreement has renewed investor confidence in all forms of renewable energy including bioenergy, and I look forward to finally seeing the sector grow from the time when I worked in it. However, as with any sector that reaches maturity, we can expect bioenergy to be subject to closer public scrutiny and environmental regulation as it develops.
We’ve seen how the wind energy sector lost so much ground in Ireland by failing to anticipate public resentment and address potential negative impacts early enough. It is my hope that some of the potential issues above will be addressed and resolved at this early stage in the growth of the Irish bioenergy sector, so that our bioenergy industry can adopt genuinely sustainable practices now rather than having to address them further down the road when solutions become more costly and difficult to implement.
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