BIO-FUELS: NO SILVER BULLET AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS

By Vicente Paolo Yu III and - - Reprint | | Print |

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GENEVA, Oct 4 2007 (IPS) - While increasing the proportion of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles is a step in the right direction, it is not the \’\’silver bullet\’\’ that will break the world\’s dependence on fossil fuels, writes Vicente Paolo Yu III, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme at the South Centre. In this article, Yu writes that biofuels should be seen as a part of a broader strategy of diversifying the energy mix that allows society to shift to more sustainable energy sources with minimal economic and social disruption. It is crucial that biofuel production does not compete directly with food production, especially in developing countries, and that the latter\’s poor not be made to vie for food with the livestock and automobiles of those in developed countries. More research, development, and investment needs to be made in other climate-friendly energy alternatives (i.e. biogas, solar, wind, tidal, water, geothermal, hydrogen), for power generation, transportation, and daily consumer use, to expand the use of these alternatives as future replacements for fossil fuels.

The South Centre, a thinktank and intergovernmental organisation of developing countries, is equally engaged with this issue, from the perspective of developing countries. Recently it submitted joint comments to the European Commission together with the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Foundation, in the context of the European Commission’s initiative to undertake public consultations on incorporating into new EU legislation a requirement that petrol and diesel contain 10 percent biofuel by 2020 in the EU.

While increasing the proportion of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles is an important step in the right direction, it should be clearly understood that biofuels will not be the ”silver bullet” that will break the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Rather, it should be seen as a part of a broader strategy of diversifying the energy mix that allows society to shift to more sustainable energy sources with minimal economic and social disruption.

There are other considerations that the global community should also take into account regarding the promotion of biofuels:

-Food security. Biofuels that can be included in current liquid fossil fuel mixes for motor vehicles, such as bioethanol and biodiesel, come from biomass sources like sugar cane, soya, and corn, which can be also used for direct and indirect human consumption. Careful consideration must therefore be given to ensuring that biofuel production does not compete directly with food production, especially in developing countries, whose poor should not be made to vie for food with the livestock and automobiles of those in developed countries. The provision of assistance will need to be incorporated in the modalities for the sustainability scheme to provide incentives to developing country biofuel producers to reflect food security considerations in their biofuel production plans.

-Land use and environment. The promotion of biofuels may also result in significant conversion of ecologically-fragile or ecologically-significant land and ecosystems (such as forests, wetlands) into agricultural land for the production of biofuel feedstock crops. The modalities for the sustainability scheme should also take this into account and provide incentives to prevent such conversion, especially in developing countries.

-Greenhouse gas emissions and energy balance. The production and use of liquid biofuels as part of a fossil fuel mix for motor vehicles may be less energy efficient overall than previously thought. Careful consideration must be given to determining what is the best possible energy-efficient use for the basic feedstock liquid biofuels can be made from — in other words, whether they would be better used as food and their residue used as direct fuel feedstock for power generation (rather than for transportation).

-Trade and development. The promotion and use of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles could boost trade for major developing country producers of such biofuels. Care must therefore be taken to ensure that any modalities put in place by countries to ensure that the use of biofuels is ecologically sustainable do not act as barriers to trade (including subsidies for biofuels). At the same time, such modalities should include mechanisms to help developing country producers improve the energy efficiency and carbon-saving ratios of their products, innovate and diversify beyond liquid biofuel production (e.g. to biogas production), and avert or minimise any adverse impacts on food security or land use in their home countries that result from their production of biofuels. They should also aim at ensuring that developing countries are able to meet their own energy needs.

-Biofuels and other sustainable energy sources. More research, development, and investment needs to be made in other climate-friendly energy alternatives (i.e., biogas, solar, wind, tidal, water, geothermal, hydrogen), for power generation, transportation, and daily consumer use, to expand the use of these alternatives as future replacements for fossil fuels. The modalities for the sustainability scheme for liquid biofuels should therefore be linked to an incentive system that promotes such R&D and investment in other more climate-friendly energy solutions, especially in developing countries.

-Multi-stakeholder dialogue approaches. Global problems will require global solutions formulated globally in a participatory manner. The determination of the sustainability of production and the use of biofuels should be done through a participatory and multi-stakeholder process that reflects the concerns and issues raised by those who produce, are affected by the production of, and use liquid biofuels and their feedstocks, both those in developed and developing countries. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)