IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v4y2014i7d10.1038_nclimate2239.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Payback time for soil carbon and sugar-cane ethanol

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco F. C. Mello

    (Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo
    Sustainability Science Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)

  • Carlos E. P. Cerri

    (‘Luiz de Queiroz’ College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo)

  • Christian A. Davies

    (Shell Technology Centre Houston, 3333 Highway 6 South Houston, Texas 77082, USA)

  • N. Michele Holbrook

    (Sustainability Science Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
    Harvard University)

  • Keith Paustian

    (Colorado State University)

  • Stoécio M. F. Maia

    (Instituto Federal de Alagoas, Maceió)

  • Marcelo V. Galdos

    (Laboratório Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia do Bioetanol — CTBE)

  • Martial Bernoux

    (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement — IRD, UMR Eco&Sols, 2 place Viala 34060 Montpellier, France)

  • Carlos C. Cerri

    (Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo)

Abstract

Sugar cane is increasingly cultivated for bioenergy. This work looks at the effects on the soil-carbon balance of converting native vegetation, pastures or existing cropland, to sugar-cane plantations in Brazil, the world’s largest producer. The findings of the study should help shape policies aimed at achieving more sustainable sugar-cane production in Brazil as demand for biofuels grows.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco F. C. Mello & Carlos E. P. Cerri & Christian A. Davies & N. Michele Holbrook & Keith Paustian & Stoécio M. F. Maia & Marcelo V. Galdos & Martial Bernoux & Carlos C. Cerri, 2014. "Payback time for soil carbon and sugar-cane ethanol," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(7), pages 605-609, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:4:y:2014:i:7:d:10.1038_nclimate2239
    DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2239
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2239
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nclimate2239?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maggie R. Davis & Bruno J. R. Alves & Douglas L. Karlen & Keith L. Kline & Marcelo Galdos & Dana Abulebdeh, 2017. "Review of Soil Organic Carbon Measurement Protocols: A US and Brazil Comparison and Recommendation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Filoso, Solange & Carmo, Janaina Braga do & Mardegan, Sílvia Fernanda & Lins, Silvia Rafaela Machado & Gomes, Taciana Figueiredo & Martinelli, Luiz Antonio, 2015. "Reassessing the environmental impacts of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil to help meet sustainability goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1847-1856.
    3. Alkimim, Akenya & Clarke, Keith C., 2018. "Land use change and the carbon debt for sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 65-73.
    4. Kargbo, Hannah & Harris, Jonathan Stuart & Phan, Anh N., 2021. "“Drop-in” fuel production from biomass: Critical review on techno-economic feasibility and sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. de Oliveira Bordonal, Ricardo & Lal, Rattan & Alves Aguiar, Daniel & de Figueiredo, Eduardo Barretto & Ito Perillo, Luciano & Adami, Marcos & Theodor Rudorff, Bernardo Friedrich & La Scala, Newton, 2015. "Greenhouse gas balance from cultivation and direct land use change of recently established sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) plantation in south-central Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 547-556.
    6. Louisa Jane Di Felice & Maddalena Ripa & Mario Giampietro, 2018. "Deep Decarbonisation from a Biophysical Perspective: GHG Emissions of a Renewable Electricity Transformation in the EU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Ivan Vera & Birka Wicke & Floor van der Hilst, 2020. "Spatial Variation in Environmental Impacts of Sugarcane Expansion in Brazil," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-20, October.
    8. Pereira, L.G. & Cavalett, O. & Bonomi, A. & Zhang, Y. & Warner, E. & Chum, H.L., 2019. "Comparison of biofuel life-cycle GHG emissions assessment tools: The case studies of ethanol produced from sugarcane, corn, and wheat," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    9. Maurício R Cherubin & Douglas L Karlen & Carlos E P Cerri & André L C Franco & Cássio A Tormena & Christian A Davies & Carlos C Cerri, 2016. "Soil Quality Indexing Strategies for Evaluating Sugarcane Expansion in Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, March.
    10. Gustavo V. Popin & Arthur K. B. Santos & Thiago de P. Oliveira & Plínio B. Camargo & Carlos E. P. Cerri & Marcos Siqueira-Neto, 2020. "Sugarcane straw management for bioenergy: effects of global warming on greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon storage," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 559-577, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:4:y:2014:i:7:d:10.1038_nclimate2239. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.