Plant Power May Tackle Several Sustainable Development Goals

Discovering alternative sources of energy to replace fossil fuels is critical to alleviating climate change. Research led by the University of Leeds proposes plants and fungi as a source of renewable energy or "plant power".

The study is published in a September issue of the journal Plants People Planet by New Phytologist. The team believes that bioenergy is an essential part of the world transitioning to renewable energy technologies.

Transitioning to plant power would be a contributing solution to the seventh UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) of affordable and clean energy. Moreover, sourcing plants and fungi for energy would not only reduce carbon emissions, it would also help those in poverty gain access to energy.

Developing Renewable Energy

In partnership with the Royal Botanical Gardens, a team was brought together from 42 countries, resulting in over 200 international scientists. The authors wrote that "there is rich untapped diversity in the plant and fungal kingdoms that offers potential to contribute to the shift away from fossil fuels."

The team explored ways plants and fungi from around the world could provide energy in small farms. They also looked for possible ways that invasive plant species could be converted into bioenergy.

Developing renewable energies would not reach SDG 7, but impact other goals such as no poverty (SDG 1), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and climate action (SDG 13). Energy poverty is also a major problem, especially "in the Global South where biodiversity is greatest and least investigated,' wrote the authors.

Some countries still use wood as a major source of energy and fuel, which is unsustainable. Even worse, logging has multiple negative impacts on the environment while people develop illnesses from indoor air pollution from the smoke.

In 2017, it was estimated that nearly 840 million people did not have access to electricity, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, about three billion use polluting technologies for cooking such as firewood and kerosene, according to the United Nations.

Plant Power

Using plants and fungi as plant power includes creating biomass and liquid biofuels or biodiesel such as vegetable oils. Invasive plant species can also be gathered to decompose and processed into bioethanol, thermal energy, and electricity. Fungal enzymes and yeast species can also be converted into biomass.

According to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, at least 2,500 plant species are known to be sources of bioenergy or fuel. In the future, these plant and fungi species can be the source of energy for machinery, food processing, and car fuel as well.

Professor Jon Lovett from the Unversity of Leeds said that it is not enough that only botanists are informing people of the "horrific levels of biodiversity loss on the planet," they are helping find solutions. Previously the trade-off for energy demand as climate change and deforestation, but there are alternative ways without trade-offs. "Plant power can be harnessed to provide renewable energy and create biodiverse energy gardens," he said.

Dr. Olwen Grace from the Royal Botanic Gardens believes that addressing energy poverty with sustainable solutions can be solved within 10 years if there is government support. "There is real potential to harness the advances in engineering to support diverse, sustainable, and resilient landscapes supporting the most essential human needs - food, water, and energy."

Check out more news and information on Renewable Energy on Science Times.