Biomass is declining due to climate change, and it is the source of energy to be relied on instead of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change.
The world is facing increasing challenges related to its continuity. Climate changes have affected all parts of the earth, and have caused many severe and different weather events, including a significant rise in temperatures, devastating hurricanes, floods, and droughts as well.
Maintaining the sustainability of biomass is a very important challenge that requires rapid action, and biomass is a renewable organic material that we obtain from plants and animals, and can be used as a source of clean energy.
On the seventh of this September, a group of researchers from the University of York in English and Fudan in China published a research paper in the journal Nature with the aim of determining how to optimally exploit the biomass that is declining due to climate change, which is the source of energy that must be relied upon instead of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions and adaptation to climate change.
The current situation is sounding the alarm
The results of the study indicated that the delay of the world's countries in excluding the use of fossil fuels and relying on renewable energy sources that include bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will lead to multiple dangers.
It is reported that in 2015, more than 190 parties agreed to cooperate to limit global warming in what is known as the Paris Agreement, provided that the temperature of the planet does not exceed 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius as a maximum.
Those concerned with climate change have monitored an increase in the Earth's temperature by an average of 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to its temperature during the period between 1850 and 1900, which means the need to quickly implement measures to reduce global warming and adapt to climate changes during the current decade.
The climate and bioenergy dilemma
According to a press release published on the Euekalert website , bioenergy, with carbon capture and storage, as a source of clean energy, is critical to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to the latest report of the International Committee on Climate Change (IPCC). .
However, the large-scale use of vital energy sources faces many technical and economic challenges, which may lead to dependence on this energy during the second half of the current century, during which energy technology is expected to develop.
The problem of the difficulty of exploiting bioenergy lies in the lack of control of the current increasing temperatures, which negatively affects agricultural crops, which limits the materials used as clean energy sources derived from biomass, so dependence on fossil fuels continues, and climate changes worsen.
The dangers of delaying the adoption of bioenergy
The researchers participating in the study relied on the use of modeling to predict temperature change, carbon emissions and soil fertility, based on a set of international information.
The results indicated that delaying reliance on bioenergy sources, with carbon capture and storage, to 2060 instead of 2040, will lead to the reduction of agricultural waste, which causes a reduction in the efficiency of bioenergy use with carbon capture and storage, and thus the planet's temperature rises from 1.7 Celsius to 3.7 degrees in 2200.
The increase in global warming contributes to reducing the agricultural area, which means the need to increase food trade, and to pay attention to the cultivation of food crops at the expense of crops used to obtain bioenergy, in order to confront severe food shortages and possible famines that affect all countries of the world, especially developing countries.
Quick fateful decisions to exploit bioenergy
The researchers pointed out that there is a “point of no return” after which we will not be able to adapt to climate changes. Reaching this point means not controlling the increasing temperatures, exposure to serious food disasters, and the absence of the possibility of exploiting vital energy sources.
According to the modeling processes conducted by the researchers, the widespread application of bioenergy technologies, with carbon capture and storage, and various means to reduce carbon emissions, helps to avoid this painful scenario, which means that a quick transition to the exploitation of clean energy, along with an attempt to improve soil fertility, helps Due to the negative impact of agriculture on climate change.
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