Boosting biofuels can mean less food for the poor (original) (raw)

Biofuel development at stake in the European Union

2007

In March 2007, the European Council announced that a minimum proportion of 10% of biofuels should be incorporated into the fuels used for road transport by 2010. The European public authorities put forward three main factors to justify such an ambition : the reduction in Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the diversification of energy supplies and farm income support. While we wonder how the 5.75% incorporation could be reached by 2010, this new boost to Community policy on biofuels raises several questions.

Biofuels and Climate Change Mitigation

The Impacts of Biofuels on the Economy, Environment, and Poverty, 2014

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Overview on Biofuels From a European Perspective

Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 2009

In light of the recently developed European Union (EU) Biofuels Strategy, the 24 literature is reviewed to examine: (1) the coherency of biofuel production with the EU non-25 industrial vision of agriculture, and (2) given its insufficient landbase, the implications of a 26

How much hope should we have for biofuels?

Energy, 2011

This paper revisits the recent developments in biofuel markets and their economic, social and environmental impacts. Several countries have introduced mandates and targets for biofuel expansion. Production, international trade and investment have increased sharply in the last few years. However, some analysts linked biofuels to the 2007e2008 global food crisis. Existing studies diverge on the magnitude of the projected long-term impacts of biofuels on food prices and supply, with studies that model only the agricultural sector showing higher impacts and studies that model the entire economy showing relatively lower impacts. In terms of climate change mitigation, biofuels reduces GHG emissions only if GHG emissions related to land-use change are avoided. When biofuel production entails conversion of forest to cropland, net reduction of GHG would not be realized for many years. Existing literature does not favor the diversion of food for large-scale biofuels production, but the regulated expansion of biofuels in countries with surplus lands and a strong biofuel industry cannot be ruled out. Developments in non-food based or cellulosic (or second generation) biofuels may offer some hope, yet they still compete with food supply through land use and are currently constrained by a number of technical and economic barriers.

The Ripple Effect: Biofuels, Food Security, and the Environment

Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 2007

The integration of the agricultural and energy sectors caused by rapid growth in the biofuels market signals a new era in food policy and sustainable development. For the first time in decades, agricultural commodity markets could experience a sustained increase in prices, breaking the long-term price decline that has benefited food consumers worldwide. Whether this transition occurs-and how it will affect global hunger and poverty-remain to be seen. Will food markets begin to track the volatile energy market in terms of price and availability? Will changes in agricultural commodity markets benefit net food producers and raise farm incomes in poor countries? How will biofuels-induced changes in agricultural commodity markets affect net consumers of food? At risk are more than 800 million food-insecure people-mostly in rural areas and dependent to some extent on agriculture for incomes-who live on less than 1perdayandspendthemajorityoftheirincomesonfood.1Anadditional2−2.5billionpeoplelivingon1 per day and spend the majority of their incomes on food. 1 An additional 2-2.5 billion people living on 1perdayandspendthemajorityoftheirincomesonfood.1Anadditional2−2.5billionpeoplelivingon1 to $2 per day are also at risk, as rising commodity prices could pull them swiftly into a food-insecure state. The potential impact of a large global expansion of biofuels production capacity on net food producers and consumers in low-income countries presents challenges for food policy planners and raises the question of whether sustainable development targets at a more general level can be reached. 2 Achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, which include halving the world's undernourished and impoverished, lies at the core of global initiatives to improve human well-being and equity, 3 yet today, virtually no progress has been made toward achieving the dual goals of alleviating global hunger and poverty. The record varies on a regional basis: Gains have been made in many Asia-Pacific and Latin American-Caribbean countries, but progress has been mixed in South Asia, and setbacks have occurred in numerous sub-Saharan African countries. 4 Whether the biofuels boom will move extremely poor countries closer to or further from the Millennium Development Goals remains uncertain.