Britain’s august scientific academy, the Royal Society, has called for better research and policy development on
biofuels to ensure they make a positive rather than damaging contribution to the fight against global warming.
The Society has published a 90-page report, ‘Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges’, acknowledges the potential value of biofuels to displace the use of fossil fuels but identifies a host of complexities that bring into question whether biofuel production and use can be sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.
The rationale for biofuels is that they can be used in place of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel yet their production and use sees zero net emissions of greenhouse gases. Burning fossil fuels sees carbon released to the atmosphere that would otherwise remain locked up under the Earth’s surface. Burning plant-derived fuels only puts back into the atmosphere carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants when they were grown.
The report provides a good summary of the concerns emerging globally over the push towards biofuels. In particular, the impact on food supplies and prices from the use of grains and other food crops to make ethanol and biodiesel, and the impact of renewable fuels on greenhouse gas emissions which can vary significantly depending on their production and distribution.
A UK parliamentary committee has raised much the same
concerns in a call for a moratorium to be placed on increasing the use
of biofuels in Europe. The European Commission wants renewables fuels
to make up 10 per cent of transport fuels by 2020.
The Royal Society report warns that biofuels are only one part of the solution to cutting greenhouse emissions from transport, now estimated to be 20 per cent of total emissions. It looks specifically at the issues of crop feedstock, refining and distribution in the context of the UK market and government policies such as the Renewable Fuels Transport Obligation and national climate targets. But it says a common set of sustainability criteria should be established internationally given the expanding trade in the industry and the global nature of the climate change challenge.
“Unless biofuel development is supported by appropriate policies and economic
instruments that address these issues, then there is a risk that we may become locked into inefficient and potentially environmentally harmful biofuels supply chains,” the report concludes.
The Society calls for a greater research and development effort into each stage of the biofuels supply chain to lift their performance as a sustainable energy source.
The European Commission has strongly rejected the UK House of Commons environmental audit committee's moratorium call, saying biofuels are the currently the fastest option for cutting growing greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
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Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges