Bioenergy and Water

Bioenergy currently plays a relatively minor role in the UK energy system, accounting for approximately 4% of UK primary energy resources in 2013. 

The binding constraints on the system are the UK Climate Change Act and its interim carbon budgets - which together require that emissions are reduced by 80% relative to 1990 levels by 2050 - and the EU Renewables Energy Directive - which now requires that 15% of UK final energy consumption is delivered from renewable resources by 2020. The Carbon Plan, published in 2011, sets out a range of possible pathways that would achieve these committments, with bioenergy playing a part.