The webinar format will consist of two paper presentations (15 min each) and a 10-minute discussion with an invited expert stakeholder, followed by a 20-minute open discussion (1 hour total).
Mohamed Abdalla presented his paper, ‘Assessing the Sustainability of Miscanthus and Willow as Global Bioenergy Crops: Current and Future Climate Conditions (Part 1)’, exploring the sustainability and climate resilience of two key bioenergy crops - Miscanthus and Willow - under changing environmental conditions. He highlighted that miscanthus and willow offer strong environmental co-benefits. Miscanthus thrives on marginal lands, sequesters significant carbon, and enhances soil health, while Willow improves soil structure, prevents erosion, and integrates well with existing land uses through coppicing. On the other hand, he stressed that large-scale cultivation raises concerns related to soil and water resource pressures, land-use change and potential trade-offs with biodiversity and food security.
Goran Berndes presented his paper, ‘Beneficial Land Use Change: Strategic Expansion of New Biomass Plantations can Reduce Environmental Impacts from Agriculture’, which tackles issues stemming from the difficulties with relying on biomass in the long-term as a food supply in view of its adverse affects upon land in the short and long term. In doing so, he underlined that careful creation of agricultural production mechanisms can attenuate concerns regarding the negative environmental consequences of existing agricultural practices and generate biomass for the economy. He stressed that the study has revealed that a portion of the land available for agriculture ranging from 10 % to 46 % can be used in all EU countries for the purpose of ‘land use change.’ The latter areas are located in various regions of Europe, but some of them are considered to be of particular significance.
Floortje van der Hilst joined the discussion as the panelist and asked questions to the speakers regarding a number of issues such as the necessity to identify the areas where the use of bioenergy can be beneficial and fields in which its use can generate harm.
Pete Smith moderated the discussion and directed a number of questions to the other participants that relate to a few subject matters such as the risk of mischanta spreading as an invasive species and the impact of bioenergy crops like miscampus and willow on biodiversity.
Speakers:
09 April 2025, 2 pm - 3 pm I ZOOM, online
here.
The webinar format will consist of two paper presentations (15 min each) and a 10-minute discussion with an invited expert stakeholder, followed by a 20-minute open discussion (1 hour total).
