Bioenergy Projects and Sustainable Development: Which Project Types Offer the Greatest Benefits?

The analysis finds that bioenergy projects relying on on-farm residues claim the highest number of sustainable development benefits, while those using industrial forestry residues claim the fewest. Most projects focus on economic and environmental benefits, with very few social benefits beyond stakeholder participation.

• Bioenergy projects that utilize on-farm (non-industrial) residues, such as mustard crops, claim the highest number of sustainable development benefits, frequently citing direct and indirect employment, technology transfer, and environmental improvements.
• Projects based on industrial forestry residues, specifically black liquor and sawmill waste, claim the fewest sustainable development benefits, performing similarly to industrial gas or fossil fuel switch projects.
• The most frequently claimed sustainable development benefits across all sampled bioenergy projects are renewable energy production (100%), stakeholder identification (99%), waste reduction (82%), employment generation (60%), and indirect income through local feedstock sourcing (57%).
• Bagasse projects exhibit the widest variation in claimed benefits and are more likely than other bioenergy types to claim social benefits, such as education, training, and a focus on the poor, particularly in Brazil.
• Regional differences in claimed benefits appear to be driven by the distribution of project types rather than regional characteristics; for example, Brazil has a higher proportion of industrial residue projects (72%) compared to India (35%).

APA

Lee, C., & Lazarus, M. (2011). Bioenergy Projects and Sustainable Development: Which Project Types Offer the Greatest Benefits? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/SEI-WP-2011-04-Bioenergy-Sustainable-Dev.pdf

Chicago

Lee, Carrie, and Michael Lazarus. Bioenergy Projects and Sustainable Development: Which Project Types Offer the Greatest Benefits? Stockholm Environment Institute, 2011. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/SEI-WP-2011-04-Bioenergy-Sustainable-Dev.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lee |first1=Carrie |last2=Lazarus |first2=Michael |title=Bioenergy Projects and Sustainable Development: Which Project Types Offer the Greatest Benefits? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/SEI-WP-2011-04-Bioenergy-Sustainable-Dev.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lee2011bioenergy, author = {Lee, Carrie and Lazarus, Michael}, title = {{Bioenergy Projects and Sustainable Development: Which Project Types Offer the Greatest Benefits?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/SEI-WP-2011-04-Bioenergy-Sustainable-Dev.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }