Biofuels do more harm than good
Source: Agencies |
November 9, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EUROPEAN plans to promote biofuels will lead farmers to convert 69,000 square kilometers of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report warned yesterday.
The impact equates to an area the size of the Republic of Ireland.
As a result, the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will generate between 81 and 167 percent more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, says the report.
Nine environmental groups reached the conclusion after analyzing official data on the European Union's goal of getting 10 percent of its transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020.
But the European Commission's energy team, which originally set the target, countered that the bulk of the land needed could be found by reusing abandoned farmland in Europe and Asia, lessening the impact.
New science has emerged this year casting doubt on the sustainability of the 10 percent goal, but EU energy officials have argued that only around two thirds of that target will be met through biofuels, with the balance being vehicles powered by renewable electricity.
Twenty three of the EU's 27 member states have now published their national strategies for renewable energy, revealing that fully 9.5 percent of transport fuel will be biofuel in 2020, 90 percent of which will come from food crops, the report says.
The EU's executive Commission is now considering whether to tweak legislation to take account of the emerging science.
This year's fractious quest to understand the impact of EU biofuels policy has already led to allegations of bias, court action against the Commission and warnings that the studies could kill the nascent industry.
The debate centers on a new °?concept known as "indirect land-use change."
In essence, that means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody will go hungry unless those missing tons of grain are grown elsewhere.
The shortfall could be made up from anywhere, and economics often dictate that it will be in tropical zones, encouraging farmers to hack out new land from fertile forests.
Burning forests to clear that land can pump vast quantities of climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, enough to cancel out any of the benefits the biofuels were meant to bring.
The indirect effects of the EU's biofuel strategy will generate an extra 27 to 56 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, says the report. In the worst case, that would be the equivalent of putting another 26 million cars on Europe's roads, it added.
However, the European Commission's energy team says shortfalls in grain can be avoided in several ways, including the improvement of farming yields and cultivating abandoned land.
The impact equates to an area the size of the Republic of Ireland.
As a result, the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will generate between 81 and 167 percent more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, says the report.
Nine environmental groups reached the conclusion after analyzing official data on the European Union's goal of getting 10 percent of its transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020.
But the European Commission's energy team, which originally set the target, countered that the bulk of the land needed could be found by reusing abandoned farmland in Europe and Asia, lessening the impact.
New science has emerged this year casting doubt on the sustainability of the 10 percent goal, but EU energy officials have argued that only around two thirds of that target will be met through biofuels, with the balance being vehicles powered by renewable electricity.
Twenty three of the EU's 27 member states have now published their national strategies for renewable energy, revealing that fully 9.5 percent of transport fuel will be biofuel in 2020, 90 percent of which will come from food crops, the report says.
The EU's executive Commission is now considering whether to tweak legislation to take account of the emerging science.
This year's fractious quest to understand the impact of EU biofuels policy has already led to allegations of bias, court action against the Commission and warnings that the studies could kill the nascent industry.
The debate centers on a new °?concept known as "indirect land-use change."
In essence, that means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody will go hungry unless those missing tons of grain are grown elsewhere.
The shortfall could be made up from anywhere, and economics often dictate that it will be in tropical zones, encouraging farmers to hack out new land from fertile forests.
Burning forests to clear that land can pump vast quantities of climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, enough to cancel out any of the benefits the biofuels were meant to bring.
The indirect effects of the EU's biofuel strategy will generate an extra 27 to 56 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, says the report. In the worst case, that would be the equivalent of putting another 26 million cars on Europe's roads, it added.
However, the European Commission's energy team says shortfalls in grain can be avoided in several ways, including the improvement of farming yields and cultivating abandoned land.
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