Global Impacts Programme

In all the UK economy has about  150 million tonnes of biomass available to it each year of which more than 50 million tonnes are imported. As a nation we consume approximately two tonnes of biomass per person per year.

 

JNCC’s Global Impacts Programme is concerned primarily with identifying patterns and trends for imported biomass. Key groups of imported biomass have been identified based on their potential for biodiversity impacts through land use change and other drivers.

 

Current and future global suppliers have also been identified as regional and national sources of biomass. Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean/Latin America and the CIS/Baltic have been identified as regions where more biomass for energy will be produced than will be needed locally.The project provides background information on biomass use and imports and also looks at specific commodity groups, like food, forest and fishery products and biofuels.

 

The UK also invests heavily in overseas economies. Some of the business sectors attracting UK investment are concerned directly with biomass production for food, fuel or fibre. JNCC is routinely monitoring investment patterns to identify sectors and destinations that might have an impact on global ecosystems.

 

Using trade and investment data, we are mapping and describing the potential impacts of these UK economic activities on global ecosystems.