Socio-Economic Impacts of Bioenergy Production

Dear Colleagues,

Around the world, many countries are increasing efforts to promote biomass production for industrial uses, including biofuels and bioproducts, such as chemicals and bioplastic. Against the backdrop of a lively public debate on sustainability, bioenergy wields both positive and negative impacts upon a variety of environmental and socioeconomic issues. These include property rights, labor conditions, social welfare, economic wealth, poverty reduction, and more. This Special Issue aims to discuss the issues and impacts of bioenergy, taking into account the local and regional framework under which bioenergy is produced, touching upon educational level, cultural aspects, the history and economies of the producing countries, and an array of policies, including environmental and social targets.

During the last few decades, bioenergy production has been radically promoted worldwide as a clean and ecofriendly source of energy, mainly due to the global concern of climate change, primarily attributed to the increasing emission of CO₂ by fossil fuel consumption. Although vegetable oils were first used as liquid fuels (bioenergy) in an internal combustion engine by Rudolf Diesel in the early 1900s, the low cost and easy availability have turned fossil fuels, such as petroleum, into a primary fuel for vehicular transport. Nevertheless, the limited reserves of petroleum and its derivatives have necessitated the search for cleaner and alternative sources of energy. Although bioenergy is considered a versatile type of renewable energy, the large-scale production of bioenergy from biomass is always under criticism, as it requires large tracks of arable lands for bioenergy plantation. Hence, there is a direct conflict of interest between food and biofuel production in the societies concerned. As a result, the present global bioenergy production levels are not promising (55 EJ) and are still not enough to satisfy the energy demands of a burgeoning global population. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to maximize bioenergy production without having any social and economic conflicts. However, the socioeconomic considerations are mainly influenced by the local and regional frameworks (societal and economic) of the concerned nations, including the educational level, cultural aspects, and policies, including environmental and social targets. In this context, this Special Issue is intended to provide a relevant and in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic issues associated with bioenergy production; suitable indicators for assessing the sustainability of such bioenergy production programs; and strategies for overcoming all such negative impacts in an amicable way.

This Special Issue focuses on the following aspects: (i) Tools for socioeconomic impact assessments, (ii) indicators for assessing socioeconomic sustainability, (iii) test auditing of the indicators, (iv) linkages between socioeconomic and environmental impacts of bioenergy, (v) the socioeconomic impact of biofuels on land use change, (vi) effects on food security, (vii) socioeconomic indicators on different bioenergy case studies, and (viii) the contribution of bioenergy to energy access and energy security.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Colmenar-Santos
Prof. Dr. David Borge Diez
Dr. Enrique Rosales-Asensio
Guest Editors

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• socioeconomic impacts
• bioenergy production
• sustainability
• biofuels
• food security
• energy security