In this literature review Ecologic analyses more than 25 recent and relevant scientific studies with regard to the potential (positive as well as negative) environmental impacts of large-scale biomass production for bioenergy.

The study provides an overview of the most important and frequently named environmental pressures and impacts due to large-scale bioenergy production found in literature.  It relates environmental pressures along bioenergy processing chains (land use change, production/ cultivation of bioenergy crops, harvesting of bioenergy crops, building the necessary infrastructure, processing the feedstock into biofuel including co-products, transport) with different environmental impacts (GHG emissions, biodiversity, soil, water, air quality) and indicates which literature sources deal with these issues.

The analysed studies have moreover been classified according to their analytical approach including scenario components and the global/ regional coverage of the impact analysis.

The project was part of the framework contract Agri-environmental analysis.