Soil and biofuels - Final report, June 2023

The development of renewable energies (RE) is one of the most important ways to move away from the use of fossil fuels, a major cause of climate change. The development of these energies also makes it possible to locate energy production in the country, which suffers from a high level of energy dependence on imports: oil, gas and uranium. France is committed to ensuring that 32% of the energy consumed in France and 40% of the electricity produced is of renewable origin by 2030, with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, renewable energies have environmental impacts, particularly on the soil. Soil is one of the major global challenges, a limited resource on a global scale and non-renewable on a human life scale. It is essential for maintaining human activities, food security, achieving carbon neutrality, the health of populations, and the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. This study aims to evaluate the surface areas required for the development of biofuel production. It proposes surface references to the energy produced, and evaluates the surface areas necessary to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050 according to the scenarios proposed by ADEME in Transition(s) 2050 (ADEME, 2021). The analysis identified several challenges for soils and their use in relation to biofuel production in mainland France, including. The agricultural area dedicated to the product ion of biomass for conventional and advanced biofuels is estimated, depending on the assumptions made and the Transition(s) 2050 scenarios, at a value of between 850,000 and 1,750,000 ha, comparable to or less than the areas already existing in 2020. The assumptions made in Transition(s) 2050 reduce or limit the increase in competition with the food sector (for livestock and for humans). To limit the use of dedicated crops, the development of advanced biofuel production should require the use of forest wood and straw. In the Transit ion(s) 2050 scenarios t hat develop them, t he necessary forest areas are estimated at between 800,000 ha and 3,400,000 ha. Forest harvesting can present soil protection issues, presented in detail in the documents 'Sol et bois energie collectif et industriel' (ADEME, 2023A). The mobilisation of st raw (300,000 - 400,000 ha) must also be accompanied by special attention to avoid impacting other sectors or historical uses (e.g. animal bedding) and soil quality. Indeed, the organic matter used cannot be returned to the soil as opposed to being used in livestock farming or methanization (Andrade et al. 2023, ADEME, 2023B). This document is completed by specific documents for other renewable energy sectors (onshore wind, offshore wind, methanization, industrial and collective wood energy and photovoltaic solar energy) as well as by a summary document 'Sol et energies renouvelables'. (authors)