Climate change is driving each the lack of biodiversity and the necessity for clean, renewable energy. Additionally it is shifting where species are expected to live in the longer term. Yet these realities are rarely considered together. Where can clean energy projects be built without impacting the longer term habitat ranges of threatened and endangered species?
A study from the University of California, Davis, examines this query by overlaying renewable energy siting maps with the ranges of two species within the southwestern United States: the enduring and climate-vulnerable Joshua tree and federally endangered San Joaquin kit fox.
The study, published today within the journal Nature Climate Change, found that Joshua trees are expected to lose 31% of their habitat while kit foxes lose 81% by 2070. That is with climate change alone, under a moderate emissions scenario. When overlayed with existing and proposed renewable energy projects, an extra 1.7% of Joshua tree habitat and three.9% of kit fox habitat might be lost.
“This study describes how we’d like to make use of more renewable energy to fight climate change, however it also warns us that as we expand renewable energy, we’re going to overlap with biodiversity hotspots,” said first writer Uzma Ashraf, a postdoctoral scholar with the UC Davis Wild Energy Center and the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. “We show how advanced computer modeling will be applied to enhance our understanding of site renewable energy resources in ways in which profit biodiversity and their shifting ranges.”
Clean energy and biodiversity
Globally, 290 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capability were developed in 2021. The world must ramp that as much as 1,120 GW yearly between now and 2030 to satisfy net zero emissions goals by 2050.
Meanwhile, animal populations have declined by two-thirds previously 50 years, mostly because of habitat losses, that are exacerbated by climate change, the study notes.
Altering the landscape could damage places that might otherwise function climate refugia under future climate conditions.
San Joaquin kit foxes have been known to make use of solar facilities for habitat, which scientists attribute to the shade the facilities provide. The study said this implies there could also be ways to attenuate impacts to the species through careful attention to its ecological needs.
Future-facing decisions
Corresponding writer and Associate Professor Rebecca R. Hernandez directs the Wild Energy Center at UC Davis. She said her center is working to develop a framework to assist clean energy developers make future-facing decisions on siting that consider expected range shifts of animals.
“There may be a current moonshot for solar and wind energy development,” Hernandez said. “It’s one where the footprint of the transition takes hold fast but in a way that reinforces goals for biodiversity conservation and social justice. Species maps are actually dynamic over time under climate change. Our team uses state-of-the-art computational tools to chart a secure passage for renewables.”
The study’s co-authors include Toni Lynn Morelli of the U.S. Geological Survey and Adam B. Smith of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development.
The study was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
