Delayed use of bioenergy crops might threaten climate and food security

The potential of mitigation actions to limit global warming within 2 °C (ref. ¹) might rely on the abundant supply of biomass for large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that is assumed to scale up markedly in the future^2–5. However, the detrimental effects of climate change on crop yields may reduce the capacity of BECCS and threaten food security^6–8, thus creating an unrecognized positive feedback loop on global warming. We quantified the strength of this feedback by implementing the responses of crop yields to increases in growing-season temperature, atmospheric CO₂ concentration and intensity of nitrogen (N) fertilization in a compact Earth system model⁹. Exceeding a threshold of climate change would cause transformative changes in social–ecological systems by jeopardizing climate stability and threatening food security. If global mitigation alongside large-scale BECCS is delayed to 2060 when global warming exceeds about 2.5 °C, then the yields of agricultural residues for BECCS would be too low to meet the Paris goal of 2 °C by 2200. This risk of failure is amplified by the sustained demand for food, leading to an expansion of cropland or intensification of N fertilization to compensate for climate-induced yield losses. Our findings thereby reinforce the urgency of early mitigation, preferably by 2040, to avoid irreversible climate change and serious food crises unless other negative-emission technologies become available in the near future to compensate for the reduced capacity of BECCS.