DIIS Comment
Can biofuel live up to its promises?
Denmark takes over the European Union presidency for six months from 1 January 2012. The Danish government should use this opportunity to play an active role in promoting the sustainable production and utilization of biofuels by pushing for the use of stricter biofuel sustainability standards that give commitments to rural development and smallholder business models and that take into account direct and indirect land use change
07 December 2011
On 25 November 2011, the new Danish government presented its plan for how the country can secure its energy future. This strategy is based on the previous government’s energy strategy, ‘Energy Strategy 2050’. The new plan proposes that the entire energy supply (100%) should come from renewable energy sources by 2050. While the long-term focus in the transport sector is on electric cars, the strategy aims that 10% of the energy for the transport sector should come from biofuels by 2020. However, the EU target on transport energy supply that by 2020 10% of the energy must come from renewable energy sources, mainly biofuels, has already been criticized by many scholars, environmental NGOs and advocacy groups for its negative impact on the environment and on poor people in developing countries. The major argument for a shift to biofuels as an alternative energy source in the transport sector is that it will reduce emissions from fossil fuel uses, as well as address issues of energy security and rural development.
Even though biofuels began to be considered one of the solutions to climate change in the early 2000s, recent research shows that in some cases they may actually increase greenhouse gas emissions or reduce them less than originally thought. Another major concern with regard to the use of biofuels is that using agricultural land and crops for the production of biofuels instead of food has impacts on food prices, as became apparent from 2007/2008 onward. The current rush for agricultural land in developing countries, which is frequently described as ‘land grabbing’, is driven by food security concerns in investor countries, but also by increasing demand for biofuels in developed countries. Because of the land shortage, unless the second generation of biofuels enter into use within a short period of time, it will be impossible for Denmark and the EU to meet their renewable energy targets without massive imports of biofuels from developing countries.
The land that has already been claimed by European firms for biofuels production in developing countries is estimated to be around 5 million hectares. A study shows that about 500 million hectares of land would be required to satisfy the global demand for biofuels by 2020. Research on the impacts of the rapid expansion of large-scale biofuels feedstock production in developing countries on rural people’s livelihoods is inconclusive. However, some research findings suggest that the rapid expansion of biofuels, in a situation where the investment-receiving countries are not well prepared to manage and monitor the implementation of these investments, is displacing farmers and more vulnerable groups such as women from their land and pushing them further into poverty.
In October 2011, nearly 200 international scientists and economists involved in the fields of climate change, energy and land use wrote a letter to the European Commission urging it to recognize and take into account the indirect land use changes that are caused by the use of biofuels. These scientists suggest that, for renewable energy polices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions successfully, it is very important to include all sources of emissions when analyzing the emission savings due to the use of biofuels.
The EU 10% target, which can only be met by importing large quantities of biofuels from developing countries, leaves many questions unanswered. To what extent are investments in large-scale biofuels production leading to forced displacements of local people and their livelihood strategies? How can we ensure that biofuels are not displacing food crops in developing countries, where food insecurity is already a critical problem? How can we ensure that biofuels are not actually contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation?
These uncertainties imply that EU member states should take the main responsibility for ensuring that the biofuels they import from developing countries are produced under acceptable social, economic and environmental standards. The EU has already approved about seven voluntary sustainability certification systems for biofuels. But these sustainability schemes have limitations in that they lack any social sustainability requirements or have poor coverage of social sustainability standards, as well as a narrow take on land use.
As Frans Mikael Jansen, Secretery General of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke-ActionAid Denmark has said: ‘Without being able to track and properly test whether biofuels meet the sustainability criteria we possess, we have no guarantee that we are not contributing to creating hunger and poverty in developing countries’ (translated from Danish).
Even though biofuels began to be considered one of the solutions to climate change in the early 2000s, recent research shows that in some cases they may actually increase greenhouse gas emissions or reduce them less than originally thought. Another major concern with regard to the use of biofuels is that using agricultural land and crops for the production of biofuels instead of food has impacts on food prices, as became apparent from 2007/2008 onward. The current rush for agricultural land in developing countries, which is frequently described as ‘land grabbing’, is driven by food security concerns in investor countries, but also by increasing demand for biofuels in developed countries. Because of the land shortage, unless the second generation of biofuels enter into use within a short period of time, it will be impossible for Denmark and the EU to meet their renewable energy targets without massive imports of biofuels from developing countries.
The land that has already been claimed by European firms for biofuels production in developing countries is estimated to be around 5 million hectares. A study shows that about 500 million hectares of land would be required to satisfy the global demand for biofuels by 2020. Research on the impacts of the rapid expansion of large-scale biofuels feedstock production in developing countries on rural people’s livelihoods is inconclusive. However, some research findings suggest that the rapid expansion of biofuels, in a situation where the investment-receiving countries are not well prepared to manage and monitor the implementation of these investments, is displacing farmers and more vulnerable groups such as women from their land and pushing them further into poverty.
In October 2011, nearly 200 international scientists and economists involved in the fields of climate change, energy and land use wrote a letter to the European Commission urging it to recognize and take into account the indirect land use changes that are caused by the use of biofuels. These scientists suggest that, for renewable energy polices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions successfully, it is very important to include all sources of emissions when analyzing the emission savings due to the use of biofuels.
The EU 10% target, which can only be met by importing large quantities of biofuels from developing countries, leaves many questions unanswered. To what extent are investments in large-scale biofuels production leading to forced displacements of local people and their livelihood strategies? How can we ensure that biofuels are not displacing food crops in developing countries, where food insecurity is already a critical problem? How can we ensure that biofuels are not actually contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation?
These uncertainties imply that EU member states should take the main responsibility for ensuring that the biofuels they import from developing countries are produced under acceptable social, economic and environmental standards. The EU has already approved about seven voluntary sustainability certification systems for biofuels. But these sustainability schemes have limitations in that they lack any social sustainability requirements or have poor coverage of social sustainability standards, as well as a narrow take on land use.
As Frans Mikael Jansen, Secretery General of Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke-ActionAid Denmark has said: ‘Without being able to track and properly test whether biofuels meet the sustainability criteria we possess, we have no guarantee that we are not contributing to creating hunger and poverty in developing countries’ (translated from Danish).
Regions
Denmark
Can biofuel live up to its promises?