Bioenergy’s Role in Meeting SDGs and Paris Agreement Goals

Bioenergy – energy derived from biological materials like agricultural residues, forest biomass, energy crops, and organic waste – sits at the intersection of some of the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change, energy poverty, food security, and biodiversity loss. As the global community races to deliver on both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, sustainable bioenergy is increasingly recognized as a multi-purpose tool – one that, when governed well, can advance multiple goals at once. But that “when governed well” qualifier matters enormously, as the stakes on both sides of the ledger are high.

Bioenergy’s contribution to the SDGs
Aligning with the Paris Agreement
Key bioenergy-SDG linkages
SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy
SDG 13: Climate action
SDG 15: Life on land
Policy implications: aligning international commitments with bioenergy strategy

Bioenergy’s contribution to the SDGs

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda, set an integrated framework covering everything from zero hunger to clean energy to life on land. Bioenergy connects to this framework in several direct and indirect ways. A 2025 scientometric analysis published in iScience that examined 11,439 research publications found that SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) dominated bioenergy research at 63.4% of papers, followed by SDG 13 (climate action) at 35.7% – a clear signal of where the scientific community sees the strongest linkages.

Beyond energy and climate, the connections spread further. A joint statement by the FAO, UNEP, and the Global Bioenergy Partnership highlights that sustainable bioenergy can support energy security, clean energy access, rural development, increased agricultural productivity, improved farmer incomes, job creation, and gender equality. In sub-Saharan Africa, integrating biofuel crops into agroforestry systems can enhance land productivity while contributing to SDG 2 (zero hunger). In Southeast Asia, rural bioenergy projects create employment opportunities tied to SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth). These are not abstract possibilities – they reflect real patterns already documented in developing economies.

That said, bioenergy is not inherently beneficial. The same FAO-led joint statement is clear that benefits and trade-offs depend on context, scale, and local needs. Poorly governed bioenergy expansion can threaten food security, accelerate deforestation, and drive biodiversity loss – all of which would undermine the very SDGs it is meant to support. Good governance, grounded in evidence-based assessment and stakeholder engagement, is the critical factor that determines which side of the ledger bioenergy ends up on.

Aligning with the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement, adopted at COP21 in 2015, set a collective goal of limiting global average temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to cap it at 1.5°C. A core mechanism for achieving this is Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – each country’s self-defined climate action plan, updated every five years with increasing ambition. The Paris Agreement also explicitly reiterates the need to promote universal access to sustainable energy and calls for conserving and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks, including forests.

Bioenergy fits into this framework in two critical ways. First, it offers a low-carbon substitute for fossil fuels across sectors – transportation, industry, heating, and electricity – directly reducing emissions in line with NDC targets. Second, when combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), bioenergy can go a step further and generate negative emissions, actively removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. IRENA’s analysis confirms that bioenergy currently accounts for roughly 9% of global energy demand, representing about half of all renewable energy use – and that modern bioenergy’s contribution will need to triple by 2030 to stay on a 1.5°C-compatible pathway.

However, the UN’s own net-zero data shows current NDC pledges are far from sufficient – on track for 2.6-3.1°C of warming. This gap underscores why bioenergy needs to scale alongside other renewables, not as a standalone fix, but as part of a comprehensive low-carbon transition strategy.

Key bioenergy-SDG linkages

SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy

SDG 7 calls for universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030. Bioenergy is directly relevant here, especially for regions where solar and wind remain difficult to deploy at scale. A joint paper by IEA Bioenergy, IRENA, and FAO notes that bioenergy infrastructure, particularly for remote and rural areas, can align with SDG 7.1 (ensuring access to affordable and sustainable energy) because it can often use existing distribution systems and locally available feedstocks. Modern bioenergy also addresses the serious problem of traditional biomass use – open fires in inefficient stoves that expose millions, predominantly women and children, to harmful indoor air pollution. Transitioning these households to efficient, modern bioenergy systems is itself a direct SDG 7 intervention.

SDG 13: Climate action

SDG 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Bioenergy’s role here is central but requires careful management. The IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C notes that limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C can make it easier to achieve the SDGs – and vice versa, that well-managed SDG implementation can support climate goals. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) derived from biomass, for instance, directly address SDG 13.2 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in one of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors. Biogas and biomethane similarly displace fossil fuels in heating and industry. The challenge is ensuring that the full lifecycle of bioenergy – from feedstock cultivation to combustion – delivers genuine emissions reductions rather than simply shifting emissions elsewhere through land-use change.

SDG 15: Life on land

SDG 15 focuses on protecting, restoring, and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, halting biodiversity loss, and combating deforestation. Here, the relationship with bioenergy is the most complex. The IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 analysis confirms that total land use for bioenergy, if properly governed, can remain within sustainability constraints that protect biodiversity hotspots and meet SDG 15 targets – but only with strict certification of bioenergy products and careful control over land conversion. Conversely, if bioenergy expansion drives deforestation or monoculture energy crop expansion, it can actively undermine SDG 15. A 2021 IEA Bioenergy study reviewing 37 best-practice case studies from 18 countries found that forest and waste-based biomass supply chains were most likely to contribute positively to SDG 15, while agricultural biomass chains showed stronger links to SDG 2 (food security) and SDG 6 (clean water). The type and source of biomass, in other words, determines which SDGs are supported and which are at risk.

There is also a potential upside: biomass cultivation on degraded or marginal lands – rather than converting productive forests or farmland – can actually restore ecosystems, improve soil health, and increase carbon stocks. An UNCCD/IRENA working paper on energy and land use identifies SDG 15 as both a partial driver and a safeguard for bioenergy policy, noting that biomass cultivation can restore degraded land while also requiring biodiversity protection as a non-negotiable condition.

Policy implications: aligning international commitments with bioenergy strategy

For bioenergy to consistently deliver on SDG and Paris Agreement commitments, policy frameworks must go beyond simply promoting renewable energy and address sustainability head-on. Several international bodies have been working to define what this looks like in practice.

IRENA’s policy guidance on sustainable bioenergy identifies a clear toolkit: long-term national targets and strategies, financial and fiscal incentives, mandates and obligations, investment in research and development, and critically, sustainability governance backed by regulations and certification schemes. Without the last element, the other policies risk accelerating unsustainable bioenergy expansion. IRENA notes that context-specific regulations are essential because impacts on land, biodiversity, and communities vary enormously by location, feedstock type, and local governance capacity.

At the international level, the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) has developed sustainability indicators for bioenergy that governments and project developers can use to assess environmental, social, and economic impacts before scaling up. A governance analysis by IEA Bioenergy and IINAS notes that to achieve the GHG reductions required by the Paris Agreement, the bioenergy share in the global energy system would need to rise to around 100 EJ of primary energy from biomass by 2050 – double the 2015 level – and that this can only be achieved responsibly by mobilizing biogenic residues, waste streams, and rehabilitated degraded lands rather than expanding into intact ecosystems.

NDCs themselves are increasingly integrating bioenergy as a strategic component. UNDP’s Climate Promise reports that 100% of supported NDCs include energy targets or policies, and 90% cover the agriculture sector – both of which create natural entry points for sustainable bioenergy strategies. As countries submit their updated NDCs through 2025 ahead of COP30, the degree to which these plans explicitly incorporate sustainable bioenergy standards will be a key indicator of how seriously governments are taking the SDG-Paris alignment challenge.

At the national level, policies that support bioenergy must be coordinated with land use planning, food security frameworks, and biodiversity strategies to avoid working at cross-purposes. IEA Bioenergy’s foundational guidance on bioenergy and sustainable development stresses that enabling bioenergy expansion that genuinely supports SDG implementation requires coordinated land management and the involvement of farmers, landowners, policymakers, and community stakeholders – not just national-level targets handed down without local buy-in.

The trajectory is clear: bioenergy has a legitimate and potentially large role in meeting both the SDGs and the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. But that role is contingent – on feedstock choices, governance systems, land management practices, and the political will to enforce sustainability standards even when it is economically inconvenient to do so.

What do you think? Given that bioenergy can both support and undermine SDGs depending on how it is managed, how should governments prioritize between energy access goals and biodiversity protection when the two come into conflict? And as countries finalize their updated NDCs ahead of COP30, what specific policy mechanisms do you think would most effectively ensure that national bioenergy commitments are aligned with both climate and development goals?

References

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Table of Contents

Bioenergy’s contribution to the SDGs 🔗

Aligning with the Paris Agreement 🔗

Key bioenergy-SDG linkages 🔗

SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy 🔗

SDG 13: Climate action 🔗

SDG 15: Life on land 🔗

Policy implications: aligning international commitments with bioenergy strategy 🔗