Biofuel makes emissions worse

12 February, 2008

At a time when research is being conducted all over the world to find alternatives to conventional fuels, two recent studies have brought to light that almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse-gas emissions than conventional fuels.

The researchers came to this conclusion by taking into account the full emissions costs of producing the so-called “green” fuels.

The latest studies, published in the journal Science, have come amidst controversies over the comparative benefits of biofuels.

In the studies, for the first time, researchers in the United States took a closer look at the global environmental cost of production of biofuels. The studies examined comprehensively the emissions effects of the enormous amount of natural land being converted to cropland around the world to support development of biofuels.

According to the studies, the destruction of rainforests or grasslands not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed but also denudes the Earth of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Both studies offered the following broad conclusions in no uncertain terms: Irrespective of the fact that whether it is rainforest or scrubland that is cleared, the contribution of greenhouse gas is significant. More importantly, when considered globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.

Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University, the United States, wrote, "When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gasses substantially. Previously there's been an accounting error: land use change has been left out of prior analysis."

Plant-based fuels were originally considered as better than fossil fuels because the carbon released when plant-based fuels are burned is balanced by the carbon absorbed when the plants grew. However, recent studies have shown that the process of turning plants into fuels causes its own emissions, for example, for refining and transport.

Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy said, “The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land. So, for the next 93 years, you are making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”

Following publication of the new studies, a group of 10 distinguished ecologists and environmental biologists in the United States sent a letter to President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for a review of US policies on biofuels.

The Inter-government Panel on Climate Change, which includes the United Nations, has declared that the world has to reverse the increase of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 to avert disastrous environment consequences.

Latest updates    Contact Us - Feedback    About Us  /  Society Archive 1, Archive 2 , Archive 3 and Archive 4