Bush vegetation currently covers more than half of Namibia’s land area. Woody encroachment into grasslands has significant negative impacts on agricultural production, ecosystem services and biodiversity. At the same time, bush biomass plays an important role for Namibia’s reported status as a net carbon sink. Most bush control and biomass utilisation practices that are economically viable are associated with net GHG emissions. However, these emissions can be minimised by the use of innovative technologies. Furthermore, the study found that the successful restoration of bush-encroached rangelands could in fact serve as a mechanism for carbon sequestration. If land restoration and clean technologies are mainstreamed into the bush biomass sector, GHG emissions even from large scale bush utilisation are estimated to still be significantly lower than the estimated carbon removals from ongoing additional bush growth. At the same time, scaling up the sector promises large socio-economic benefits through domestic value chains such as charcoal, energy, livestock and animal feed production.