Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials Seminar
For more information regarding this seminar, please telephone Beatrice Murphy on 023 8059 5374 or email B.J.Murphy@southampton.ac.uk .
Event details
Climate change impacts resulting from fossil fuel combustion and concerns about the diversity of energy supply are driving interest to find low-carbon energy alternatives. As a result bioenergy is receiving widespread scientific, political and media attention for its potential role in both supplying energy and mitigating greenhouse (GHG) emissions.
It is estimated that the bioenergy contribution to EU 2020 renewable energy targets could require up to 17–21 million hectares of additional land in Europe. There are increasing concerns that some transitions into bioenergy may not be as sustainable as first thought when GHG emissions from the crop growth and management cycle are factored into any GHG life cycle assessment. In the UK we have embarked on a detailed program of work to address these concerns by combining a large number of field studies with state-of-the-art process models. Our overall objective is to identify how land use change may impact on soil carbon conservation and GHG emissions at the field scale.
Speaker information
Dr Niall McNamara , Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Lancaster