Carbon-Negative Bioenergy

Carbon-Negative Bioenergy



While Rademakers concedes that BECS in the tropics is still a theoretical concept, he notes that projects are rapidly developing in industrial countries. Further, he says, because a number of tropical countries already have an oil and gas industry in place they would probably want to put this infrastructure to use after the oil is gone. BECS could be a way to extend the life of these expensive infrastructures after the oil and gas is depleted.
While BECS could drive large-scale conversion of forests by industrial agricultural interests, if plantations are instead established on already-cleared lands BECS could provide a means for reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and supplying clean energy without degrading ecosystem services or biodiversity

Not only does [BECS] deliver clean energy, it also takes CO2 out of the atmosphere -- both services that have a potential market value," Rademakers told mongabay.com. "Therefore, forest rich countries must convince the public that forests are more than carbon sinks and that biodiversity and other ecosystem services must be quantified and expressed in monetary terms as well. It will mean putting up a lot of money to compensate these countries to conserve the last remaining rainforests.

A proposed mechanism for generating carbon-negative bioenergy -- an energy source that reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide levels -- could drive large-scale deforestation in the tropics and undermine efforts to conserve forests for carbon offsets says a biofuel expert

aurens Rademakers, a natural resource management consultant and co-founder of bioenergy research group, says that the emerging concept of coupling bioenergy production with carbon capture and storage could trigger conversion of natural forests for energy crop feedstock plantations. These plantations would not only produce income from energy production but would generate carbon credits for sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rademakers says that several tropical countries -- Nigeria, Gabon, both Congos, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Venezuela, Ecuador -- are especially well-suited for the scheme with large offshore sequestration sites as well as conditions conducive to industrial plantations