Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy
By A. Gasparatos, Christopher Doll, M. Esteban, Abubakari Ahmed, Tabitha A. Olang. 2017
473 citations recorded by the source corpus.
This literature review identifies the impacts of different renewable energy pathways on ecosystems and biodiversity, and the implications of these impacts for transitioning to a Green Economy. While the higher penetration of renewable energy is currently the backbone of Green Economy efforts, an emerging body of literature demonstrates that the renewable energy sector can affect ecosystems and biodiversity. The current review synthesizes the existing knowledge at the interface of renewable energy and biodiversity accross the five drivers of ecosystem change and biodiversity loss of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework (i.e. habitat loss/change, pollution, overexploitation, climate change and introduction of invasive species). It identifies the main impact mechanisms for different renewable energy pathways, including solar, wind, hydro, ocean, geothermal and bioenergy. Our review demonstrates that while all reviewed renewable energy pathways are associated (directly or indirectly) with each of the five MA drivers of ecosystem change and biodiversity loss, the actual impact mechanisms depend significantly between the different pathways, specific technologies and the environmental contexts within which they operate. With this review we do not question the fundamental logic of renewable energy expansion as it has been shown to have high environmental and socio-economic benefits. However, we want to make the point that some negative impacts on biodiversity do exist, and need to be considered when developing renewable energy policies. We put these findings into perspective by illustrating the major knowledge/practices gaps and policy implications at the interface of renewable energy, biodiversity conservation and the Green Economy.
Subfields: Environmental Engineering, Sociology and Political Science, Water Science and Technology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fcff2a1d90a5f3a134ce8bb8ce920098b6709218
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Citations in the corpus
- Does renewable energy drive sustainable economic growth? multivariate panel data evidence for EU-28 countries. (2017, unknown): “[23] mentioned that renewable distribution may lead to short-term socio-economic benefits that supports the robust green growth since the renewable energy segment is crucial for the shift to a green economy [24] and Foster et al.”
- Prioritization of sustainability indicators for promoting the circular economy: The case of developing countries (2019, background): “natural capital for green projects, and increase energy/resource efficiency [34].”