Caspar Donnison

Research interest and expertise: the sourcing and use of sustainable biomass in industrial decarbonization and climate mitigation strategies. Bioenergy has been identified as crucial to substituting fossil fuels and meeting the Paris Agreement targets on limiting global warming, including with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to achieve carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. I research the sustainability and environmental impacts of bioenergy supply chains for BECCS, particularly of dedicated bioenergy crops, as well as the socio-economic challenges to developing the necessary infrastructure for BECCS. This includes identifying trade-offs, co-benefits, optimal scales and locations of the land-use and technology used to deliver BECCS. With international collaborators, we explore national and regional case studies, particularly the UK and California, where we consider policy support and development.

Ongoing projects:

• Forest biomass utilization in California. We are exploring business challenges facing the bioenergy sector and how these can be supported through research on location-specific techno-economic assessment (TEA) and public benefits of forest management for bioenergy feedstocks (ecosystem services and carbon dioxide removal through Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS).
• Industrial decarbonization through biomass utilization. As part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Center (IDRIC), we design scenarios of sustainable UK-grown biomass feedstocks to support decarbonization of industrial partner companies. We use spatially-explicit land-use optimization modelling (developed in the ADVENT project) which quantifies resulting environmental impacts for key ecosystem services.   
• Sustainable biomass supply. Modelling the availability of sustainable biomass supply for the UK under future bioenergy scenarios. This research is part of the MAGLUE project.
• Food system sustainability. Research on the climate impacts of the food system and land-use and technological strategies for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. 

Funding: My research has been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the John B. Orr Endowed Professor of Plant Sciences, UC Davis.

Education: BA, University of Oxford, UK; PhD, University of Southampton, UK and University of California, Davis.

Publications:

• Donnison, C.L., Murphy-Bokern, D. Are claims of climate neutrality in the livestock sector too good to be true? (2023), Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f75   
• Delafield, G., Smith, G.S., Day, B., Holland, R.A., Donnison, C., Hastings, A., Taylor, G., Owen, N., Lovett, A. Spatial context matters: Assessing how future renewable energy pathways will impact nature and society (2023), Renewable Energy, 220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.119385  
• Donnison, C., Trdlicova, K., Mohr, A., Taylor, G. A net-zero storyline for success? News media analysis of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in the United Kingdom (2023), Energy Research & Social Science, 102, 10353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103153  
• Freer-Smith, P., Bailey-Bale, J.H., Donnison, C.L., Taylor, G. The good, the bad, and the future: Systematic review identifies best use of biomass to meet air quality and climate policies in California, Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 53, 9. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13101
• Donnison, C., Holland, R. A., Harris, Z., Taylor, G. Land-use change from food to energy: meta-analysis unravels effects of bioenergy on biodiversity and amenity (2021) https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac22be
• Delafield, G., Donnison, C., Roddis, P., Arvanitopoulos, T., Sfyridis, A., Dunnett, S., Ball, T., Logan, K. G. (2021). Conceptual framework for balancing society and nature in net-zero energy transitions. Environmental Science and Policy, 125 (August), 189–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.08.021
• Donnison, C., Holland, R. A., Hastings, A., Armstrong, L., Eigenbrod, F., & Taylor, G. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS ): Finding the win – wins for energy, negative emissions and ecosystem services - size matters. (2020), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12695
• Dale VH, Kline KL, Parish ES, Cowie AL, Emory R, Malmsheimer RW, Slade R. Smith CT, Wigley TB, Bentsen NS, Berndes G, Bernier P, Brandão M, Chum HL, Diaz-Chavez R, Egnell G, Gustavsson L, Schweinle J, Stupak I, Trianosky P, Walter A, Whittaker C, Brown M, Chescheir G, Dimitriou I, Donnison C, Goss Eng A, Hoyt KP, Jenkins JC, Johnson K, Levesque CA, Lockhart V, Negri MC, Nettles JE, Wellisch M. GCB Bioenergy. Status and Prospects for Renewable Energy Using Wood Pellets from the Southeastern United States. (2017), 9, 1296–1305, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12445  
• Scurlock, J. (ed.)., Hastings, A., Lindegaard, K., Smith, H., & Donnison, C. Renewable Energy: Power for a Sustainable Future (S. Peake (ed.); 4th ed.). Oxford University Press 2017. (Book chapter)