Biofuels have been hailed as a remedy for fossil fuel dependence, only to be later blamed for rising food prices and environmental destruction. Will a global standard help?
 | A biodiesel billboard at a gasoline station in Manila. The Philippines' biofuels law makes a one percent coconut blend diesel mandatory (Photo: Reuters) |
With rising oil prices and fear of global warming, industrialized countries all over the world have been pushing aggressive biofuel programs. Using fuel from plants such as corn or sugar cane may promote energy independence, but its environmental impact can be disastrous. This dilemma will continue to make headlines in 2008.
 | Picture Gallery (click the image to start)How sustainable are biofuels? See five of the most important crops and whether they help to fight climate change (Photo: Reuters) |
The UN plans a review of the impact of biofuels in June 2008. Finding a sustainable biofuels standard will be high on the agenda. Many hopes are being pinned on a second generation of biofuels, produced from non-food sources like grass or garbage, but this technology will not mature in 2008, making a global standard for the interim even more important.
According to Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, surging demand for biofuels has led to extensive deforestation in tropical countries. EU countries are importing biodiesel extracted from oil palms grown on cleared Indonesian forests.
Brazil, the world’s leading producer of biofuels, struggles to meet its ethanol targets without clearing chunks of the Amazon rainforest. And China recently signed a deal with the Congo to replace forests with oil palm plantations.
The increasing competition for land use is particularly apparent in the United States, where nearly a third of this year's grain harvest will go towards ethanol production, the Earth Policy Institute predicts. The United Nations says the biofuels boom has contributed to a 40-percent rise in food prices. Hardest hit are the world’s poorest.
An unchecked biofuel frenzy will not even be sustainable from a financial point of view. In a feedback effect, biofuel refineries in the U.S. have come to a halt, because rising corn prices have rendered production unprofitable.
editor: James Tulloch
publishing date: January 10, 2008
