Food or Fuel: The Battle for Land in the Energy Transition

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Food or Fuel: The Battle for Land in the Energy Transition

What do biofuels, renewable energy, and food on your plate have in common? They all need land, and lots of it. While the technologies needed to achieve a net-zero future are evolving as energy demand grows, growing populations and higher living standards could require about a fifth more land to be farmed by mid-century. Decisions must be made about whether to allocate the available land to agriculture, biofuels, bioplastics, power generation, battery metals, or nature conservation. The challenge is enormous, but key solutions are emerging, including co-location and innovation to improve energy production and agricultural yields. On today’s show, Dana is joined by Hugh Bromley, head of food, agriculture, and nature at BNEF, and Kostas Pegios, a modeling specialist at BNEF. Together, they discuss the huge amount of land needed for the energy transition, which renewable energy technologies can be co-located with existing agriculture, and the competition between food crops and biofuels for suitable land.

August 6, 2024