At a recent meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development the topic of Biofuels was addressed by a number of the participants. While most news reports have been positive about the prospects for biofuels easing the energy crunch, and having a reduced impact on the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere; many members of this commission, called for caution, according to an Associated Press report by Michael Weissenstein.
While acknowledging that biofuels are more CO2 neutral than fossil fuels, the UN commission warns that land use, food supply and water supply issues need to be taken into account when planning for biofuels production. Jacqueline Cramer, Minister for the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Netherlands said: "It is important to grasp the economic benefits of using biomass for tackling climate change, while, at the same time, avoiding biodiversity loss and competition with local food production." (UN Press Release, May 9, 2007)
Land Use
Increased ethanol production from corn has already had an impact on the price of food corn, a staple in many developing and third world countries. While this may be reduced when systems are developed to convert cellulose and lignin to sugars, this has an immediate impact on many impoverished people around the world.
Suleiman Jasir al-Herbish, Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development noted that: "...biofuels had negative side effects such as reducing food production, distorting food market prices and exacerbating water shortages..."(UN Press Release, May 10, 2007)
Bio-diesel from palm oil has led to increased planting in clear cut areas. This reduces the amount of carbon tied up in biomass, which means a net increase in atmospheric CO2. Additionally, these clear cut plantations have a short life span due to nutrient leaching and erosion, leading to additional clear cutting.
Industrial Farming Techniques
The high-volume agriculture needed to support significant use of biofuels will favor industrial style agriculture like that seen in the American mid-west. The high-volume, high-capital, low-labor agriculture will force more people off the farms and out of small villages into the mega-cities that are growing in the third world.
Paavo Vayrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland said; "...mega-cities all over the world are more or less unsustainable. Their food, water and energy supplies come from long distances and their waste problems are enormous. Life in mega-city slums is totally inhuman." (UN Press Release, May 9, 2007)
Water Requirements
The other major issue with all of the current processes for making the various biofuels is that there is a large water supply requirement to support the manufacture of these fuels.
In a world that is already experiencing a growing lack of easily available clean water, this can only aggravate an already difficult problem. While some of the process water can be recycled, a great deal of water is actually consumed in the manufacturing process.
Bio-Fuel Benefits
While there are certainly potential downsides to the new move to biofuels, if the programs are properly planned with an eye to the consequences throughout the world, and the necessary scientific and technical advances arrive quickly enough, biofuels may allow us an orderly transition from the oil economy to an energy system that is both economically and environmentally viable.
According to Claudia Blum, commission member from Columbia: "Biofuel use could expand opportunity for rural development and the well-being of rural communities; diversify energy sources; reduce pollution and its negative effect on health; mitigate the negative impact of climate change; reduce imports of fossil fuels; and improve competitiveness and economic growth." (UN Press Release, May 11, 2007)
