The possibility of using bioenergy as a climate change mitigation measure has sparked a discussion of whether and how bioenergy production contributes to sustainable development. We undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to illuminate this relationship and found a limited scientific basis for policymaking. Our results indicate that knowledge on the sustainable development impacts of bioenergy production is concentrated in a few well‐studied countries, focuses on environmental and economic impacts, and mostly relates to dedicated agricultural biomass plantations. The scope and methodological approaches in studies differ widely and only a small share of the studies sufficiently reports on context and/or baseline conditions, which makes it difficult to get a general understanding of the attribution of impacts. Nevertheless, we identified regional patterns of positive or negative impacts for all categories – environmental, economic, institutional, social and technological. In general, economic and technological impacts were more frequently reported as positive, while social and environmental impacts were more frequently reported as negative (with the exception of impacts on direct substitution of GHG emission from fossil fuel). More focused and transparent research is needed to validate these patterns and develop a strong science underpinning for establishing policies and governance agreements that prevent/mitigate negative and promote positive impacts from bioenergy production.

中文翻译：

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生物能源生产与可持续发展：决策的科学基础仍然有限。

利用生物能源作为减缓气候变化措施的可能性引发了关于生物能源生产是否以及如何促进可持续发展的讨论。我们对科学文献进行了系统回顾，以阐明这种关系，并发现制定政策的科学依据有限。我们的结果表明，有关生物能源生产对可持续发展影响的知识集中在一些经过充分研究的国家，侧重于环境和经济影响，并且主要涉及专门的农业生物量种植园。研究的范围和方法学方法差别很大，只有一小部分研究充分报告了背景和/或基线情况，这使得很难对影响的归因有一个普遍的了解。尽管如此，我们确定了所有类别（环境，经济，体制，社会和技术）的正面或负面影响的区域模式。一般而言，经济和技术影响经常被报告为积极影响，而社会和环境影响则被频繁报告为负面影响（对直接替代化石燃料温室气体排放的影响除外）。需要更集中和透明的研究来验证这些模式，并为建立政策/治理协议提供强有力的科学基础，以防止/减轻负面影响并促进生物能源生产的积极影响。经济和技术影响更常被报告为积极影响，而社会和环境影响更常被报告为消极影响（对直接替代化石燃料温室气体排放的影响除外）。需要更集中和透明的研究来验证这些模式，并为建立政策/治理协议提供强有力的科学基础，以防止/减轻负面影响并促进生物能源生产的积极影响。经济和技术影响更常被报告为积极影响，而社会和环境影响更常被报告为消极影响（对直接替代化石燃料温室气体排放的影响除外）。需要更集中和透明的研究来验证这些模式，并为建立政策/治理协议提供强有力的科学基础，以防止/减轻负面影响并促进生物能源生产的积极影响。