The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Bioenergy: how much can we expect for 2050
Open accessAbstract
Estimates of global primary bioenergy potentials in the literature span almost three orders of magnitude. We narrow that range by discussing biophysical constraints on bioenergy potentials resulting from plant growth (NPP) and its current human use. In the last 30 years, terrestrial NPP was almost constant near 54 PgC yr −1 , despite massive efforts to increase yields in agriculture and forestry. The global human appropriation of terrestrial plant production has doubled in the last century. We estimate the maximum physical potential of the world's total land area outside croplands, infrastructure, wilderness and denser forests to deliver bioenergy at approximately 190 EJ yr −1 . These pasture lands, sparser woodlands, savannas and tundras are already used heavily for grazing and store abundant carbon; they would have to be entirely converted to bioenergy and intensive forage production to provide that amount of energy. Such a high level of bioenergy supply would roughly double the global human biomass harvest, with far-reaching effects on biodiversity, ecosystems and food supply. Identifying sustainable levels of bioenergy and finding ways to integrate bioenergy with food supply and ecological conservation goals remains a huge and pressing scientific challenge.
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“Estimates of global primary bioenergy potentials available around 2050 published in the last 5 years span range from 30 to 1300 EJ/year [9,10].”
From The effect of bioenergy expansion: food, energy, and environment (2014) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“Large energy crop potentials can only be justified by assuming the use of a large fraction of the Earth's surface or yields far exceeding current net primary production, or both [10].”
From The effect of bioenergy expansion: food, energy, and environment (2014) · cites this paper as [10]
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A safe operating space for humanity
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Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture
Tilman, D., Balzer, C., Hill, J., & Befort, B. L. (2011) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1116437108 · Cited by 7,692
Increasing drought under global warming in observations and models
Dai, A. (2013) · Nature Climate Change · doi:10.1038/nclimate1633 · Cited by 4,762
Yield trends are insufficient to double global crop production by 2050
Ray, D. K., Mueller, N. D., West, P. C., & Foley, J. A. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066428 · Cited by 3,415
World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revisionPreprint
Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.288998 · Cited by 3,192
Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity
Lambin, E. F., & Meyfroidt, P. (2011) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1100480108 · Cited by 3,160
IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
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Global depletion of groundwater resources
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The effect of bioenergy expansion: food, energy, and environment
Popp, J., Lakner, Z., Harangi-Rákos, M., & Fári, M. (2014) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2014.01.056 · Cited by 967
Bioenergy and biofuels: History, status, and perspective
Guo, M., Song, W., & Buhain, J. (2015) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2014.10.013 · Cited by 931
Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment
Creutzig, F., Ravindranath, N. H., Berndes, G., Bolwig, S., Bright, R., Cherubini, F., Chum, H., Corbera, E., Delucchi, M., Faaij, A., et al. (2015) · GCB Bioenergy · doi:10.1111/gcbb.12205 · Cited by 752
Self-citationHandbook of Clean Energy Systems
See, L., Kraxner, F., Fuss, S., Perger, C., Schill, C., Aoki, K., Leduc, S., McCallum, I., Forsell, N., & Fritz, S. (2014) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118991978 · Cited by 571
The battle for biomass: A systematic review of food-feed-fuel competition
Muscat, A., de Olde, E. M., de Boer, I. J. M., & Ripoll‐Bosch, R. (2019) · Global Food Security · doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100330 · Cited by 408
Metadata
- Authors
- Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F., Running, S., Searchinger, T. D., & Kolby Smith, W.
- Affiliations
- University of Montana (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Haberl, Helmut
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2013-09-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 031004
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2151597316
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 29.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- The Mathematics Enthusiast (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (265104)
- Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
- Austrian Science Fund (263522, P20812)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Forest Biomass Utilization and Management
- Keywords
- bioenergy potential, terrestrial net primary productivity, pasture, savanna, tundra, biomass harvesting, land use conversion, biophysical constraints, food supply, biodiversity impacts, sustainable bioenergy, 2050 projections
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