Biofuels Risk Failing to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Royal Society today added its voice to the chorus of those advising caution in the rush to embrace biofuels as a major energy source.
In a new report, the UK’s influential academy of science warns that “biofuels risk failing to deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from transport and could even be environmentally damaging unless the right policies are put in place.”
The report, Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges, calls for biofuels to be assessed and certified for the greenhouse gas savings they will deliver, as well as their positive and negative social and environmental impacts.
Echoising earlier reports from the International Monetary Fund and the OECD, the Society says biofuels are not the silver bullet for meeting the rising demand for transport while tackling emissions.
Delivering a sustainable transport system will require combining biofuels with other developments including the improved design of vehicles and engines, increased use of public transport and better urban and rural planning to encourage, for example, walking and the use of bicycles.
The Society sees real opportunities to develop biofuels that can deliver substantial greenhouse gas savings. “This means that it is also important to consider how liquid biofuels can help tackle much needed emissions reductions in the transport sector.”
Figure 6.1 Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels compared with conventional transport fuels. (Source: Woods & Bauen 2003).
Key findings of the report include:
- Existing policy frameworks and targets for biofuels are sometimes based on scant evidence and may miss important opportunities to deliver greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
- Biofuels alone cannot deliver a sustainable transport system. They should be part of an integrated package of measures.
- There are a significant number of social, economic and environmental uncertainties associated with biofuels and policy frameworks must ensure that such issues are addressed.
- There is a danger of policy forging ahead of the research and technology needed to achieve the outcomes proposed.
- There is a huge opportunity for the UK research, development and policy communities to make a significant contribution to the development of a
sustainable global biofuels industry
The Society recommends applying carbon certification and sustainability criteria to the assessment of biofuels, which may require additional criteria specific to biofuels to be developed. “These assessments can only become fully effective if applied to all forms of land use, which avoids the need to assess the indirect impacts of biofuels.”
The BBC reports that the European Union will introduce a certification scheme for biofuels and is promising a clampdown on biodiesel from palm oil, which is leading to forest destruction in Indonesia.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas tolf the BBC the EU did not foresee the problems raised by its policy to get 10% of Europe’s road fuels from plants.
We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully.
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February 27th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
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