Göran Berndes

Chalmers University of Technology · Department of Space, Earth and Environment

The 10-Point Action Plan to catalyse a Circular Bioeconomy of Wellbeing is a call for collective and integrated action to global leaders, investors, companies, scientists, governments, non- governmental and intergovernmental organisations, funding agencies and society at large to put the world on a sustainable path.

Ceccherini et al.1 reported an abrupt increase in harvested forest—in terms of both biomass and area—in Europe from 2016, and suggested that this reflected expanding wood markets encouraged by the bioec- onomy policies of the European Union (EU). They used Global Forest Watch2 and GlobBiomass3 data together with an analysis that sought to remove na...

The scientific literature contains contrasting findings about the climate effects of forest bioenergy, partly due to the wide diversity of bioenergy systems and associated contexts, but also due to differences in methods. The climate effects of bioenergy must be accurately assessed to inform policy‐making, but the complexity of bioenergy systems an...

Many global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top‐down integrated assessment models or bottom‐up modelling,...

What should I eat? Many people ask this question several times a day. What we eat determines whether we get all the nutrients and energy that we need. But our choice of foods is also important for the environment and Earth’s climate. Which diets are nutritious, healthy, and climate friendly? There is no easy answer. All the activities involved in p...

The European Union (EU) does not have a common forestry policy but EU policies can indirectly affect the forest sector. This study departs from the EU “Fit for 55” package of legislation and uses a forest sector model to simulate and analyze three responses in the Swedish forest sector (2020–2100) to policy initiatives addressing climate change and...

Increasing crop rotational diversity, e.g., by including grass-clover ley crops, can increase soil organic carbon (SOC) and support climate change mitigation and adaptation, with economic and environmental co-benefits. Here, we apply a method for using large and continuously updated geospatial datasets on (i) agricultural land use and (ii) soil pro...

Independent Expert Report to the European Commission

Biomass is a versatile renewable energy source that can be used in all parts of the energy system, but it is a limited resource and usage needs prioritisation. Here we use a sector-coupled European energy system model to explore the range of cost-effective near-optimal solutions for achieving stringent emissions targets. We show that provision of b...

Grass‐based biomass from grasslands can be used as feedstock in green biorefineries (GBs) that produce a range of biobased products. In addition, adjustments made as part of crop rotation to increase areas under temporary grasslands can yield benefits such as carbon sequestration, increased soil productivity, reduced eutrophication and reduced need...

Supplementary data to: Nordborg, M., Berndes, G., Dimitriou, I., Henriksson, A., Mola-Yudego, B., & Rosenqvist, H. (2018). Energy analysis of willow production for bioenergy in Sweden. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 93, 473-482.

The agriculture sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, sequestering carbon in vegetation and soils, and providing biomass to substitute for fossil fuels and other GHG intensive products. The sector also needs to address water, soil, and biodiversity impacts caused by historic and curre...

Abatement options for the hard-to-electrify parts of the transport sector are needed to achieve ambitious emissions targets. Biofuels based on biomass, electrofuels based on renewable hydrogen and a carbon source, as well as fossil fuels compensated by carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are the main options. Currently, biofuels are the only renewable fue...

Only a fraction of the material that could be turned into new plastic is currently recycled. Researchers at Chalmers have now demonstrated how the carbon atoms in mixed waste can replace all fossil raw materials in the production of new plastic. The recycling method is inspired by the natural carbon cycle and could eliminate the climate impact of p...

Abatement options for the hard-to-electrify parts of the transport sector are needed to achieve ambitious emissions targets. Biofuels based on biomass, electrofuels based on renewable hydrogen and a carbon source, as well as fossil fuels compensated by carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are the main options. Currently, biofuels are the only renewable fue...

Bioenergy aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to meeting global climate change mitigation targets. Nevertheless, several sustainability concerns are associated with bioenergy, especially related to the impacts of using land for dedicated energy crop production. Cultivating energy crops can result in synergies or trade-offs...

Circular economy approaches are commonly depicted by two cycles, where the biological cycle is associated with regeneration in the biosphere and the technical cycle with reuse, refurbishment, and recycling to maintain value and maximize material recovery. This work, instead, presents an alternative vision to the management of carbon-based materials...

We analyse the short-and long-term consequences for atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations of forest management strategies and forest product uses in Sweden by comparing the modelled consequences of forest resource use vs. increased conservation at different levels of GHG savings from carbon sequestration and product substitution with bioe...

The Working Group III (WG III) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) assesses literature on the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social aspects of mitigation of climate change. The report reflects new findings in the relevant literature and builds on previous IPCC reports, including the WG III contribution t...

Achieving the Swedish national climate and transport sector targets requires that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road traffic be significantly reduced in the coming decades. Vehicle electri- fication and biofuel use, along with reduced car travel, have been identified as important strategies. The aim of the project summarized in this report is...

The agriculture sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, sequestering atmospheric carbon in vegetation and soils, and providing biomass to substitute for fossil fuels and other GHG intensive products (1). New policies at the EU level provide incentives for more sustainable land-use pract...

The agricultural sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sequestering atmospheric carbon in vegetation and soils, and by providing biomass for substituting fossil fuels and other GHG intensive products in the energy, industry and transport sectors. New policies at EU level provide in...

This paper has been published with Global Change Biology Bioenergy (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcbb.12943).

Integrated assessment models are widely used to assess climate change mitigation strategies. Comparing scenarios from several integrated assessment models, a study now highlights the benefits and trade-offs of near-term mitigation to reduce mitigation challenges in the longer term.

Within the scope of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, in coherence with other EU policies, new incentives are developed for farmers to deploy practices that are beneficial for climate, water, soil, air, and biodiversity. Such practices include establishment of multifunctional biomass production systems, designed to reduce en...

Bioenergy can contribute to achieving European Union (EU) climate targets while mitigating impacts from current agricultural land use. A GIS-based modeling framework (1000 m resolution) is employed to match biomass supply (forest and agricultural residues, complemented by lignocellulosic energy crops where needed) with biomass demand for either ele...

The land sector needs to increase biomass production to meet multiple demands while reducing negative land use impacts and transitioning from being a source to being a sink of carbon. The new Common Agricultural Policy of the EU (CAP) steers towards a more needs-based, targeted approach to addressing multiple environmental and climatic objectives,...

In the last 50 years, the biosphere, upon which humanity depends, has been altered to an unparalleled degree. The current economic model relying on fossil resources and addicted to “growth at all costs” is putting at risk not only life on our planet, but also the world’s economy. The need to react to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis is a unique o...

Society faces the double challenge of increasing biomass production to meet the future demands for food, materials and bioenergy, while addressing negative impacts of current (and future) land use. In the discourse, land use change (LUC) has often been considered as negative, referring to impacts of deforestation and expansion of biomass plantation...

Supplementary material Englund O, Börjesson P, Berndes G, Scarlat N, Dallemand J-F, Grizzetti B, Dimitriou I, Mola-Yudego B, Fahl F, (2019). Beneficial land use change: strategic expansion of new biomass plantations can reduce environmental impacts from EU agriculture. Global Environmental Change

IEA Bioenergy Task 43 Report TR2019-06

Biomass co‐firing with coal can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can act as a low‐cost stepping‐stone for developing biomass supply infrastructures. This paper presents a techno‐economic assessment of the biomass co‐firing potential in coal‐fired boilers in Czech Republic, France, Germany and Poland. The current coal power plant infrastr...

The production of short rotation woody crops (SRWCs) such as poplars and willows is a promising component of global bioenergy and phytotechnology portfolios. In addition to the provision of biomass feedstocks and pollution remediation, these trees and shrubs have been sustainably grown to conserve or utilize water in a variety of applications. Grow...

Society faces the double challenge of addressing negative impacts of current land use, while increasing biomass production to meet the future demands for food, materials and bioenergy. Potential impacts of increasing the biomass supply are subject to debate. In the discourse, land use change (LUC) has often been considered as negative, referring to...

IEA Bioenergy Task 43 report, TR2018-05, http://task43.ieabioenergy.com/publications/lignocellulosic-crops-in-agricultural-landscapes/.

is report summarizes the discussions that took place at a 2-day international conference titled Forests and the climate: Manage for maximum wood production or leave the forest as a carbon sink?, held on March 12th–13th at the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry in Stockholm, Sweden. e conference aimed to facilitate dialogue among expe...

The Brazilian Amazon rainforest is protected largely by command and control regulation of public and private land. The Brazilian Forest Act requires private landholders within the Amazon to set aside 80% of their land as legal reserves for nature protection, but this requirement can be reduced to 50% if more than 65% of a state’s territory is prote...

Sustainable feedstock supply is a critical issue for the bioenergy sector. One concern is that feedstock production will impact biodiversity. We analyze how this concern is addressed in assessments of biomass supply potentials and in selected governance systems in the EU and Brazil, including the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the EU Common A...

Biofuels policies induce land use changes (LUC), including cropland expansion and crop switching, and this in turn alters water and soil management practices. Policies differ in the extent and type of land use changes they induce and therefore in their impact on water resources. We quantify and compare the spatially varying water impacts of biofuel...

Supporting Information for ‘Water impacts of U.S. biofuels: Insights from an assessment combining economic and biophysical models’. Table A. Crop and land use categories modeled in BEPAM, CDL, and CropWatR. Table B. Area cropped in million hectares in the base year (2008) and at the end of the modeling period by scenario. Delta values show the perc...

Integrated assessment model scenarios project rising deployment of biomass‐using energy systems in climate change mitigation scenarios. But there is concern that bioenergy deployment will increase competition for land and water resources and obstruct objectives such as nature protection, the preservation of carbon‐rich ecosystems, and food security...

Biomass co‐firing with coal is a near‐term option to displace fossil fuels and can facilitate development of biomass conversion and the build‐out of biomass supply infrastructure. A GIS‐based modeling framework (EU‐28, Norway, and Switzerland) is used to quantify and localize biomass demand for co‐firing in coal power plants and agricultural and fo...

Energy from biomass, including lignocellulosic crops such as willow (Salix spp.), is expected to increase in importance in Sweden. This study assesses the average annual net energy yield and the ratio between gross energy yield and total primary energy input for well-managed current commercial willow production systems in Sweden subject to three le...

Brazil is one of the major contributors to land-use change emissions, mostly driven by agricultural expansion for food, feed and bioenergy feedstock. Policies to avoid deforestation related to private commitments, economic incentives, and other support schemes are expected to improve the effectiveness of current command and control mechanisms incre...

Poplar (Populus spp.) species are currently not widely grown in Sweden but offer interesting options for future large-scale biomass production for bioenergy. This study assesses the average annual net energy yield and the ratio between the gross energy yield and the total primary energy input for well-managed current commercial poplar production sy...

Brazil has global importance for food production and conservation of natural resources. The country has plans to increase yields and commitments to decrease deforestation that require higher productivity. Plans and policies for the growth of Brazilian agriculture, however, have been made without an integrated analysis of the harvest and not support...

This report summarises a project that analysed options for integrating lignocellulosic crops in the agricultural landscape, to provide biomass feedstock while at the same time providing additional ecosystem services. This was done by analysing several concrete cases of relevant lignocellulosic cropping systems. Each case was evaluated on context, d...