Greenhouse-gas payback times for crop-based biofuels

• Published in: Nature climate change 2015-06, Vol.5 (6), p.604-610
• Main Authors: Elshout, P. M. F., van Zelm, R., Balkovic, J., Obersteiner, M., Schmid, E., Skalsky, R., van der Velde, M., Huijbregts, M. A. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 704/106/694/1108; 704/106/694/2739/2807; Agricultural land; Alternative energy sources; Biodiesel fuels; Biofuels; Biomass; Carbon dioxide; Climate Change; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Corn; Crops; Cultivation; Emissions; Environment; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Farm buildings; Farm management; Fossil fuels; Global warming; Grain cultivation; Greenhouses; Natural vegetation; Nitrogen; Raw materials; Science; Soil sciences; Soybeans; Sugarcane; Triticum aestivum; Tropical environments; Vegetation; Wheat; Winter wheat
• ISSN: 1758-678X; 1758-6798
• DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2642

A global increase in the demand for crop-based biofuels may be met by cropland expansion, and could require the sacrifice of natural vegetation. Such land transformation alters the carbon and nitrogen cycles of the original system, and causes significant greenhouse-gas emissions, which should be considered when assessing the global warming performance of crop-based biofuels. As an indicator of this performance we propose the use of greenhouse-gas payback time (GPBT), that is, the number of years it takes before the greenhouse-gas savings due to displacing fossil fuels with biofuels equal the initial losses of carbon and nitrogen stocks from the original ecosystem. Spatially explicit global GPBTs were derived for biofuel production systems using five different feedstocks (corn, rapeseed, soybean, sugarcane and winter wheat), cultivated under no-input and high-input farm management. Overall, GPBTs were found to range between 1 and 162 years (95% range, median: 19 years) with the longest GPBTs occurring in the tropics. Replacing no-input with high-input farming typically shortened the GPBTs by 45 to 79%. Location of crop cultivation was identified as the primary factor driving variation in GPBTs. This study underscores the importance of using spatially explicit impact assessments to guide biofuel policy. Greenhouse-gas payback times are derived for biofuel production systems using five feedstocks under high- and low-input farm management to assess replacement of natural vegetation with crop-based biofuels. Estimates ranged from 1–162 years.