U.N. Agency Questions Further Biofuels Development

Biofuels may not be the panacea for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and their development is threatening global food security, says the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in a new report.

“Expanded use and production of biofuels will not necessarily contribute as much to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as was previously assumed,” the FAO report says.

“While some biofuels feedstocks, such as sugar, can generate significantly lower greenhouse-gas emissions, this is not the case for many other feedstocks.”

The FAO is calling for biofuels policies and subsidies to be reviewed in order to preserve world food security, protect poor farmers, promote broad-based rural development and ensure environmental sustainability, the report says.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf tells a news conference in Rome biofuels present both opportunities and risks.

“The outcome would depend on the specific context of the country and the policies adopted,” he says. “Current policies tend to favor producers in some developed countries over producers in most developing countries. The challenge is to reduce or manage the risks while sharing the opportunities more widely.”

The FAO says biofuels production based on agricultural commodities increased more than threefold from 2000 to 2007, and now covers nearly 2% of the world’s consumption of transport fuels. The growth is expected to continue, but the contribution of liquid biofuels (mostly ethanol and biodiesel) to transport and global energy use will remain limited.

Despite the limited importance of liquid biofuels in terms of the global energy supply, the demand for agricultural feedstocks (sugar, maize and oilseeds) for liquid biofuels will continue to grow over the next decade and perhaps beyond, putting upward pressure on food prices.

“Opportunities for developing countries to take advantage of biofuel(s) demand would be greatly advanced by the removal of the agricultural and biofuel(s) subsidies and trade barriers that create an artificial market and currently benefit producers in OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries,” Diouf says.

Other policy measures driving the rush to liquid biofuels, such as the mandated blending of biofuels with fossil fuels, as well as tax incentives, have created an artificially rapid growth in biofuels production. These measures have high economic, social and environmental costs and should also be reviewed, the report says.

“Decisions about biofuels should take into consideration the food security situation but also the availability of land and water,” Diouf says. “All efforts should aim at preserving the utmost goal of freeing humanity from the scourge of hunger.

“Changes in land use – for example, deforestation to meet growing demand for agricultural products – are a great threat to land quality, biodiversity and greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Sustainability criteria based on internationally agreed upon standards could help to improve the environmental footprint of biofuels, the report says, but they should not create new trade barriers for developing countries.

The next generation of biofuels now under development but not yet commercially available, which will use feedstocks such as wood, tall grasses, forestry and crop residues, could improve the fossil-energy and greenhouse-gas balance.

“There seems to be a case for directing expenditures on biofuels more towards research and development, especially on second-generation technologies, which, if well designed and implemented, could hold more promise in terms of reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions with less pressure on the natural resource base,” Diouf says.