AXA IM Award - Sustainable Bioenergy

To meet the Paris Agreement and keep the global temperature rise well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels, biomass is expected to play an important role in the future energy supply. However, the large-scale deployment of biomass for bioenergy and other novel biobased applications have raised several sustainability concerns: i.e greenhouse gas mitigation potential, the impact on biodiversity, soil quality and water availability as well as socio-economic impacts such as food security.

To help answer the challenge, Dr. Floor van der Hilst, from Utrecht University (Netherlands), has been awarded the AXA IM Climate Transition Award for her research on “Sustainability of Bioenergy” in recognition of the impact of her work which focusses on land-use change dynamics resulting from biomass production.

The AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM), in partnership with the AXA Research Fund, launched the “AXA IM Climate Transition Award” in September 2021, in order to recognise the key role of research in the fight against climate change.

Dr. van der Hilst’s research line focuses on land-use change dynamics resulting from biomass production and related impacts. Many of the sustainability impacts are related to land-use change resulting from biomass feedstock production. The environmental and socio-economic impact of land-use change induced by bioenergy production strongly depends on the spatially heterogeneous biophysical and socio-economic conditions. Therefore, the sustainability of bioenergy production is greatly affected by the location of its feedstock production. For these reasons, very little can be stated in general terms on the sustainability of bioenergy. The uncertainty on the sustainability of bioenergy hampers implementation and therefore also impedes meeting climate change mitigation targets.

Floor is an Associate Professor in the Energy and Resources group of the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University. Her research focuses on sustainable land use and sustainable biomass production for the biobased economy. She coordinates several international research projects on environmental and socio-economic impacts of land use (change), biomass production and agricultural intensification. Floor is the co-chair of IEA Bioenergy Task 45 on the sustainability of bioenergy. She spent several working periods in Mozambique, Ukraine, Brazil and South Africa.