Ghg Emission Reductions With Biotechnology

GHG Emission Reductions With Industrial Biotechnology:

Assessing the Opportunities

Marco Buttazzoni Sustainability 3.0 LLC 1180 8th Avenue West #316 Palmetto FL 34221-3810 United States MButtazzoni@sustainability30.org The opinions and assumptions presented in this report are not necessarily those of WWF or Novozymes. If nothing is otherwise stated they can only be assigned to theAuthor(s). This report is based on calculations and analysis made through contribution of sector experts and peer reviewed LCAs from a.o. Novozymes. The report can be downloaded at www.wwf.dk

Content

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Introduction Project Vision and Goals Activities and methodology to assess potential benefits Assessing the opportunities 4.1 Biotechnologies to improve efficiency 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.2Biotechnologies to improve efficiency in the food industry Biotechnology in traditional industries Dynamic impacts – low and high carbon feedbacks

4 5 6 7 7 7 10 12 12 12 14 16 18 19 20 23 26 27 27 29 30 31 31 33 34 36 39 41 42 45 47 52 84 85

Biotechnology to produce biofuels and displace fossil fuels 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 Biotechnologically produced biofuels GHG benefits per unit ofproduction GHG emission reductions from biofuels Land use impacts Dynamic impacts – low and high carbon feedbacks

4.3

Biotechnology to replace crude oil in the production of everyday materials and products 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 GHG emission reduction enabled by biobased material produced biotechnologically Land use impacts Dynamic impacts – high and low carbon feedbacks

4.4

Closing the loop4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 GHG benefits from closing the loop Land use impacts Dynamic impacts

4.5 4.6 5 6 7

Land use considerations Emission reductions potential: summary

Policies and strategies to achieve the potential of industrial biotechnologies Conclusions References List of figures List of tables Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5

1. Introduction

IndustRIAlBIOtEcHnOlOGy, cleverly working with nature to meet human needs, can potentially play a significant part in the effort to reduce human impact on the environment. In particular, industrial biotechnologies deployed to pursue sustainability goals can potentially enable a transition from the energy-, resource- and waste-intensive processes that currently dominate many industrial production processes, andhuman activities in general. They are one of the enablers for a shift to economic paradigms that are based on biological processes and, like natural ecosystems, use natural inputs, expend minimum amounts of energy and do not produce any waste, as all ‘discarded’ materials are reused in the ecosystem. WWF and Novozymes have decided to work together to better understand these opportunities to speed upthe deployment of biotechnology solutions with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.) This report is one of the initial products of this collaboration and focuses on undertaking a first estimate of the GHG emission reductions that could be achieved, on a global scale, if the potential of sustainable biotechnologies is fully harvested. The report builds on input from Novozymes andother companies and experts from a variety of sectors and disciplines, which have been involved in the work, as well as WWF. (see Appendices 1 and 2). The first part of the report (section 2) provides background on the report discussing the vision behind it and its goals. Section 3 discusses the activities undertaken during the making of this report, describing data collection approaches,analytical framework and stakeholder involvement activities. The approach followed is aimed at providing insight into the opportunities to reduce GHG emissions with a strategic deployment of industrial biotechnology. The results of this analysis are reported in Section 4, where also the key factors that affect the achievement of such opportunities are discussed. Identifying the potential to reduce GHG...