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Regardless of scale and type, all forms of biomass energy need land and water (UNEP, 2011a); they are directly dependent on the continuous delivery of supporting and regulating ecosystem services such as nutrients for the soil, pollination and water regulation. Healthy ecosystems are in turn essential for meeting the energy needs of poor people (e.g. in the case of fuelwood, the environmental water requirements of forest systems must be met and the erosion of savannah-type ecosystems prevented). It is difficult to assess the water consumption of bioenergy in general, as opposed to specific biofuels. Livestock, for instance, is an important asset for traction power and transport (a form of bioenergy), meat and milk production, manure (often used as fuel), leather and horns. Livestock water productivity calculations aim to include all benefits per consumed unit of water (Peden et al., 2009). Adding the ecosystems dimension makes the calculations more complicated. If manure is brought back into the ecosystem, it will help nutrient and water cycling, soil formation and, by increasing both fertility and structure of the soil, contribute to the reduction of erosion. However, the same manure can also be used for construction and as fuel for cooking. In the latter case, much of the nutrients are lost to the ecosystem. Biofuel, as a specific type of bioenergy, is often promoted as an alternative to fossil fuels to reduce GHG emissions (Sections 3.2.2, 6.5). Increasing surface area for biofuels under conventional agriculture leads to sometimes disproportionate increases in the use of land, water (de Fraiture et al., 2008), fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides (GEA, 2012) and other inputs. Hence, unsustainable biofuel production can have significant local implications for the state of water resources (including downstream pollution), land ownership, food security and ecosystems (FAO, 2008). Expansion of biofuel production, and its attendant shift and expansion in agricultural and forestry activity, has raised a number of environmental and social concerns, ranging from potentially increased GHG emissions to labour rights abuses, deforestation (with its own impacts on water flows as well as on firewood provision) and reduced food security (e.g. Fargione et al., 2008). Environmental impacts appear to be less in the case of algal biofuels (Moazami, 2013), though this technology needs to be proven effective beyond the pilot level. New policies and guidelines to better monitor and manage future biofuel production are needed (Groom et al., 2008). 9.2.3 Fossil fuels The extraction, processing and use of fossil fuels have many impacts on today’s ecosystems through water use, pollution and production of GHGs. Oil spills, damaged land, accidents, fires and incidents of air and water pollution are gaining attention in addition to GHG emissions. Oil frontiers are inevitably reaching remote or undeveloped sites, some of which are in environmentally vulnerable or sensitive areas, such as the Iraqi Marshlands of Mesopotamia (Box 9.1). The Ogoniland in Nigeria used to be a wetland high in biodiversity, but oil spills and oil well fires have destroyed the ecosystem and with that, the livelihoods of indigenous communities (UNEP 2011c). 9.1 Impacts of oil extraction in Mesopotamia, Iraq The Iraqi Marshlands of Mesopotamia comprise the largest wetland ecosystem in West Eurasia. As the ultimate destination for the Tigris and Euphrates waters flowing in the arid region, the Marshlands are vulnerable to hydrological, social, political, economic and environmental events upstream. The Marshlands, which supported rich biodiversity, traditional indigenous lifestyles, and unique natural and cultural landscapes, had been almost destroyed by the time the Iraqi regime collapsed in 2003 because of over-exploitation, a lack of coordinated management and political ill will. Although the new Iraqi government and the international community have made restoration and conservation efforts since 2003, exploitation of supergiant oil reserves near and within the Marshland areas could undo any progress. Water needs for oil extraction will place extra pressure on scarce freshwater resources in the Marshlands and thus threaten many aquatic ecosystem services. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) requires water injection and water steam to displace and move oil to nearby wells through enhanced recovery wells. Normally, 30% of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted (known as the recovery factor), but EOR increases this and maintains the production rate over a longer period. The oil companies operating in the area would demand approximately one billion m3 using the least water-consumptive EOR method when oil production is increased to 12 million barrels (1.4 million m3) per day. Source: UNEP, from UNEP (2007) and UN (2010). 80 CHAPTER 9 THEMATIC FOCUS BOxPDF Image | Water and Energy
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