The European Environment Agency Scientific Committee has found an error in the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the use of biofuels and biomass in the EU. The problem is that the official accounting method doesn’t deduce the absorption of greenhouse gases by existing field, forests and grasslands, leading to a double-counting of emissions [...]
Archive for the ‘agrofuels’ Category
“Serious accounting error” leads to an overstatement of emissions reductions from biofuels
Posted in agrofuels on September 30, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Jatropha biofuels more harmful than oil
Posted in agrofuels on March 23, 2011 | 6 Comments »
A report by ActionAid, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature Kenya revealed that using biofuels from jatropha results in more greenhouse gas emissions than using oil (PDF). More specifically, taking into account the emissions from production and consumption processes, jatropha biofuels from Kenya emit between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse [...]
Europes’ biofuel policy aggravating climate change
Posted in agrofuels on November 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In 2020, the EU is planning to use biofuels to substitute 9.5% of its transport fuel. Taking into account that the majority (about 90%) of these biofuels will come from food crops, this implies using 65,000 square kilometers of land. When indirect land use is considered, a report from the Institute for European Environmental Policy [...]
EU biofuel legislation drives hunger
Posted in agrofuels on February 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In a new report (link) ActionAid estimates that up to 100 million people could starve if Europe fulfills its biofuel directive. To incorporate the required 10% of biofuels in the transport fuels mix, massive crops will have to be converted to biofuel production, making other products’ prices go up. This is nothing new, of course, [...]
Evidence mounts against biofuels
Posted in agrofuels on August 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A new report by Christian Aid (link) highlights the contribution of large-scale production of biofuels for deforestation, land grabbing, food price hikes and pollution of water sources. The interesting thing about this report is that it shows how biofuel production can help the poor, but the distinction shouldn’t be drawn between good and bad biofuels [...]
