Climate Change and Energy: Land, Water

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Climate Change and Energy Land, Water Food
Interface Potential Areas of Research
Govinda R. Timilsina Development Research
Group The World Bank
Workshop on climate change and the land, water
and food interface UK Collaborative on
Development Sciences May 29, 2008 London
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Biofuels

• Despite debate in the popular media, it is
  inconclusive so far whether biofuels
• Contribute to cleaner economic development by
  channeling new investment and protecting
  economies from sharply rising oil prices
• OR
• Divert food to fuel, creating food crises and
  derailing economic growth

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Biofuels Research Issues

• An investigation of the role of biofuels in the
  current global food crisis
• Determination of the scale of biofuels effects
  on the global food markets in the future
  including distributional impacts across countries
  and household groups
• An analysis of biofuels impacts on climate
  change mitigation and other local and
  trans-boundary air pollution
• Simulations of policy interventions such as
  subsidies, taxes, import duties on biofuel
  growth, and
• An assessment of policy interventions necessary
  to promote the second generation of biofuels.

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Joint production of food energy and mitigating
climate change

• Global food/feed and energy demand under various
  scenarios
• How much of the global energy demand can be met
  with sources that do not have serious negative
  side effects (e.g., advance biomass, solar,
  tidal, wind)?
• What would be the crop types that would maximize
  production of both food/feed and energy (i.e.,
  potential use of food crops for second generation
  biofuels)?
• What portion of global transportation energy
  needs be supplied through biofuels produced from
  feedstock grown in marginalized or
  non-forestry/non-agricultural land, would such
  lands are attractive enough for a commercial
  plantation of non-food/feed biofuel feedstock?
• Is there any possibility of better utilizing the
  available lands or enhancing agricultural
  productivity so that diversion of some crops or
  lands for the production of biofuels? How much
  biofuels can be produced without affecting food
  prices?

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Biomass

• Biomass energy, particularly agricultural
  residues and forest products, is being used for
  electricity and heat generation. Use of these
  residues and waste does not seem to have any
  negative consequences in terms of food supply or
  land use (this issue also needs further
  investigation). However, the major issue here is
  the scale of operation. How would the using of
  agricultural residues for electricity and heat
  production be scaled up?
• Traditional biomass (e.g., fuel wood,
  agricultural and animal wastes) is the primary
  source of energy supply in many low income
  developing countries. How would traditional
  biomass resources be utilized through advanced
  technologies to meet energy demand in developing
  countries, particularly in rural areas?

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Solar

• Solar energy is considered as one of the most
  promising energy sources from a long-term future
  energy supply perspective. Significant
  improvements in technologies and reductions in
  cost are occurring. Considering these
  developments, how would solar energy be harvested
  on a large scale by installing solar panels, for
  example, in deserts (non-agricultural,
  non-forestry land)?
• How much electricity be produced from solar by
  using deserts such as the Sahara in Africa and
  the Thar in India what are the technological,
  economic, institutional and other barriers to
  large scale solar energy production?
• Solar roofing could be another interesting
  instrument for climate change mitigation and
  future energy security. Again what are the
  technological, economic, institutional and other
  barriers to massive implementation of solar
  roofing in areas which are rich in terms of solar
  irradiation?