UNEP sustainability panel identifies biofuels risks and opportunities
Sat 17 October 2009
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A United Nations sustainabilty expert panel has published a study which shows that biofuels have the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions or, under certain circumstances, to be significantly worse than the conventional fuels they replace. Meanwhile, a separate US-study, published in Science, says second-generation or advanced 'cellulosic' biofuels could lead to higher emissions than continuing to burn gasoline because of their indirect land-use effects.
The study says, for example, that the production and use of biodiesel from palm oil on deforested peatlands in tropican regions can produce up to 2,000 percent more GHG emissions than fossil fuels. Biodiesel can, though, cut emissions significantly if palm oil or soya beans are grown on abandoned or degraded land. Bioethanol from Brazil, for example, can lead to GHG emissions reductions of 70% or more.
The study identifies the conditions under which biofuel production can lead to higher emissions, and highlights examples of dirty fuels. It depends on how they are produced, according to the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management.
The report calls for an approach which places biofuels in the context of "an overall energy, climate, land-use, water and agricultural strategy". The UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said biofuels were "neither a panacea nor a pariah but… represent both opportunities and challenges".
A separate study, published in Science, from the U.S. Marine Biological Laboratory says that while Governments and companies are investing heavily in research into advanced fuels made from wood and grass, these advanced "cellulosic" biofuels could lead to higher carbon emissions than gasoline per unit of energy, averaged over the 2000-2030 time period. (Click here for link to MBL press release.)
That is because the land required to plant fast-growing poplar trees and tropical grasses would displace food crops, and so drive deforestation to create more farmland, a powerful source of carbon emissions.
Biofuel crops also require nitrogen fertilizers, a source of two greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and the more powerful nitrous oxide.
The report's lead author, Jerry Melillo of U.S. Marine Biological Laboratory said: "In the near-term I think, irrespective of how you go about the cellulosic biofuels program, you're going to have greenhouse gas emissions exacerbating the climate change problem.
"It is not an obvious and easy win without thinking very carefully about the problem. We have to think very carefully about both short and long-term consequences."
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