Workshop: The Role of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage in a Sustainable Future

The Royal Society, in collaboration with the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, are convening experts within a workshop to explore the question: “What is the role of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK’s sustainable future?

Workshop Aims

The workshop aims to bring together the latest evidence and enable discourse between leading experts on the role and scale of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) in climate change mitigation pathways, as well as its risks and opportunities both locally and globally.

This workshop will build on recent publications, including "BECCS Done Well", to better understand BECCS within the context of wider cross-sectoral demands for biomass, and to identify what the key areas of agreement, disagreement and knowledge gaps are on the future of BECCS across the community.

Professional facilitators will create a space for experts to discuss the sustainability of current BECCS targets and standards, leading to the development of recommendations to decision makers on how BECCS could be deployed in a way that ensures it:  

• can align and provide synergy with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 
• does not undermine efforts to protect and restore nature 
• does not delay or distract from the changes required to reduce ongoing damage to the climate system and biosphere 

The discussions and recommendations from the workshop will be summarised within a short output targeted at decision makers.

Attending this event

• Please note that places are limited, and the event is by invitation only
• This is an in-person meeting
• We will provide lunch and refreshments during the event
• We encourage you to fund your own travel to and from the event via your own institutions. If this is not possible, then please do get in touch by emailing science.policy@royalsociety.org. We would encourage participants to pursue travel arrangements in the most sustainable way, such as by avoiding flying and by taking public transport
• Find details on travel and accessibility information
• To ensure that all experts are able to effectively contribute to the workshop, all discussions will take place under the Chatham House Rule

Pre-Reading and Briefing Materials

We will share an event programme via email, with some background information in preparation for the event.

Discussion Topics

To allow for individual reflection ahead of the event, the discussions will focus on:

1. The challenges, risks and opportunities of the scales of BECCS deployment in the UK’s climate mitigation pathways 
2. The demands for biomass in other sectors and countries  
3. The standards and best practice approaches for sourcing biomass 
4. The role and scale of BECCS in alternative climate mitigation pathways 

Background

• Burning biomass for energy and capturing the resultant CO₂ emissions (known as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage or BECCS) features heavily in most scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that can keep global warming between 1.5 to 2°C
• National governments, including the UK, are developing strategies to increase the scale of deployment of this Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technology as a key component in reaching ‘net-zero’ emissions
• The UK government’s Net Zero Strategy sets the ambition of deploying at least 5MtCO₂/yr of engineered removals by 2030, and the Climate Change Committee, projects 53MtCO₂/yr of removals from BECCS by 2050 as part of its balanced pathway to net zero
• Across pathways that likely limit warming to 2 degrees or below (IPCC scenarios C1, C2 and C3), models estimate a global need for between 0.52 and 9.45 GtCO₂/yr of removals from BECCS by 2050 (5^th-95^th percentile range, median = 2.75GtCO₂/yr) 
• The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report estimates that only 0.05MtCO₂e/yr of global removal is currently delivered through BECCS
• The UK currently imports a significant amount of its biomass for use in unabated bioenergy production (34% from international sources in 2022), with any increases to bioenergy supply subsequently impacting the communities from which its biomass is sourced, both domestically and internationally
• The National Audit Office reports that the UK Government has provided £22bn of support to businesses using biomass in the power and heat sectors over the past 2 decades
• There is evidence of adverse environmental and social impacts from biomass supply chains, and risks involved in the subsequent storage of the captured carbon, particularly should this storage not prove durable. There are also major implications of increased land use competition between biomass, food supply, afforestation, habitat restoration, housing and infrastructure and other CDR or renewable technology deployment (high confidence from IPCC working group 3 report)
• Concerns have been raised from members of the scientific community, NGOs and the public that current policies are being designed without sufficient regard to other sustainable development goals and that if BECCS is rolled out with insufficient safeguards or at an unsustainable scale, the detrimental impacts could outweigh the intended positive effects
• The potential risks identified are that:

• There is a lack of evidence to demonstrate that BECCS could be feasibly deployed at the largest scales as assumed in Integrated Assessment Models
• Assumptions of significant scale-up don't appropriately consider the trade-offs of these actions, such as negative impacts to biodiversity and food security
• The significant subsidies that are available for biomass energy could be diverting money and attention away from a broader portfolio of climate mitigation solutions, including immediate actions to cut emissions
• Ambition to rapidly make emissions reductions could be diminished by relying on a future technological solution to remove emissions from the atmosphere
• An over-reliance on BECCS (or any singular solution), brings significant risks due to the elevated consequences if that solution fails e.g. if solutions aren’t resilient to climate impacts or if the benefits envisioned in models cannot be achieved

• There is broad agreement on the need for BECCS to be deployed sustainably, and of the need for standards to support this. There are existing UK criteria for the sourcing of sustainable biomass for bioenergy, such as under the Renewable Obligations Order and the Contracts for Difference Schemes, as well as proposed criteria for viable BECCS by the Forum for the Future (“BECCS Done Well”)
• There is limited evidence to demonstrate that biomass is being sustainably sourced in line with these standards, particularly where biomass is sourced from overseas. The National Audit Office report that the UK government has not evaluated whether its current arrangements are effective at ensuring compliance
• Whilst members of the scientific community have expressed a wide range of views around the risks and opportunities of BECCS, there has not yet been a forum for a balanced, open debate, to provide scrutiny and reassessment of the sustainability of current BECCS targets and standards

Contact

If you have any questions about this event then please contact science.policy@royalsociety.org.

Agenda

Refreshments will be available from 09:00, ahead of a prompt start at 09:30. 

A full agenda for the day will be emailed to participants as part of the programme booklet.