Having made a significant contribution to a new world report on sustainable bioenergy, Professor Angela Karp is to speak at the 2015 EU Sustainable Energy Week Policy Conference in Brussels.
Professor Angela Karp, who leads Rothamsted Research’s strategic research programme ‘Cropping Carbon’, funded by the BBSRC, has played a significant role in the development of a new international report entitled ‘Bioenergy & Sustainability: bridging the gaps’. This report is being presented at the EU Sustainable Energy Week, which runs from 15th to 19th June, 2015
The report, which was a collective effort with contributions from 137 researchers of 82 institutions in 24 countries representing all continents, represents the main findings and recommendations on current bioenergy production, use of bioenergy, and the growth potential. It gives the latest figures on land availability and technology options for bioenergy, while also reflecting on realistic options to create positive impacts for the environment and social development. Professor Karp gives consideration to Bioenergy Feedstocks and Environmental Security & Climate, in two authored chapters of the report.
Professor Karp comments: “The report shows we can produce sufficient bioenergy sustainably - fulfilling it’s much needed role in mitigating climate change - but to do so we need secure and pro-longed support to improve crop productivity (of bioenergy and food crops) and policies that recognise the full environmental, as well as economic, benefits. We need to use wastes and non-harvestable residues sensibly and encourage perennial bioenergy crops, as these bring multiple environmental benefits that can offset the negative consequences of intensive food production when grown on land less suited to food crops in integrated farming systems.”
Leadership of Rothamsted’s Cropping Carbon programme is central to Professor Karp’s authority to contribute to the report. This programme aims to optimise carbon captured into plant biomass for use in bioenergy, biofuels and bio-products and for sequestration (or the locking up) in soils, to underpin the UK transition to a low carbon economy. She is also responsible for the UK breeding programme of the bioenergy tree, willow, which exploits the natural diversity existing in the National Willow Collection maintained by Rothamsted Research, Harpenden.
Professor Karp will soon join, as a speaker, other energy experts, policymakers, civil society representatives and member of the media at the 2015 EU Sustainable Energy Week Policy Conference from 16th to 18th June in Brussels, Belgium. The Policy Conference will reflect on the key findings of the report and discuss conclusions in light of the recent changes to European polices on bioenergy.
Professor Karp concluded: “Biomass crops are of great value to us as an alternative source of fuels and bio-based products, and are key to ensuring future environmental and energy security. The Policy Conference is the ideal forum for all invested parties to share best practices and ideas on secure, clean and efficient energy. There is also a need to affirm that there is sufficient land available worldwide for the expansion of biomass cultivation.”
The report was coordinated by scientists linked to FAPESP’s Research Programs on Bioenergy (BIOEN), Global Climate Change (RPGCC), and Biodiversity (BIOTA), and was supported by FAPESP and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), an international nongovernmental organization.
