IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v101y2009i3p197-199.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can large-scale biofuels production be sustainable by 2020?

Author

Listed:
  • Bindraban, Prem S.
  • Bulte, Erwin H.
  • Conijn, Sjaak G.

Abstract

Worldwide, many nations impose blending of their transport fuels with biofuels, approximating 10% globally by 2020, to contribute to energy security while reducing emission of green house gasses (GHG). Food riots, scientific insights that question the GHG benefits and raised concern about the loss of biodiversity, have lead to the formulation by various governments of sustainability criteria for biofuels to comply with. In this paper, we assess this conditionality and argue that large-scale biofuels production will be unable to comply with these criteria in 2020, and can therefore not be qualified as sustainable.

Suggested Citation

  • Bindraban, Prem S. & Bulte, Erwin H. & Conijn, Sjaak G., 2009. "Can large-scale biofuels production be sustainable by 2020?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 197-199, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:101:y:2009:i:3:p:197-199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308-521X(09)00071-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. von Braun, Joachim, 2007. "The world food situation: New driving forces and required actions," Food policy reports 18, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Srirangan, Kajan & Akawi, Lamees & Moo-Young, Murray & Chou, C. Perry, 2012. "Towards sustainable production of clean energy carriers from biomass resources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 172-186.
    2. Iriarte, Alfredo & Rieradevall, Joan & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2012. "Transition towards a more environmentally sustainable biodiesel in South America: The case of Chile," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 263-273.
    3. Negash, Martha & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2013. "Biofuels and food security: Micro-evidence from Ethiopia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 963-976.
    4. Hofmann, Michael & Khatun, Kaysara, 2013. "Facilitating the financing of bioenergy projects in sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 373-384.
    5. repec:lic:licosd:35614 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Tiziano Gomiero, 2015. "Are Biofuels an Effective and Viable Energy Strategy for Industrialized Societies? A Reasoned Overview of Potentials and Limits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-31, June.
    7. Riera, Olivia & Swinnen, Johan, 2016. "Household level spillover effects from biofuels: Evidence from castor in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 55-65.
    8. Turetta, Ana Paula Dias & Kuyper, Thomas & Malheiros, Tadeu Fabrício & Coutinho, Heitor Luiz da Costa, 2017. "A framework proposal for sustainability assessment of sugarcane in Brazil," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 597-603.
    9. Wilson, P. & Glithero, N.J. & Ramsden, S.J., 2014. "Prospects for dedicated energy crop production and attitudes towards agricultural straw use: The case of livestock farmers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 101-110.
    10. Acosta-Michlik, Lilibeth & Lucht, Wolfgang & Bondeau, Alberte & Beringer, Tim, 2011. "Integrated assessment of sustainability trade-offs and pathways for global bioenergy production: Framing a novel hybrid approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 2791-2809, August.
    11. Rafael Estevez & Laura Aguado-Deblas & Francisco J. López-Tenllado & Carlos Luna & Juan Calero & Antonio A. Romero & Felipa M. Bautista & Diego Luna, 2022. "Biodiesel Is Dead: Long Life to Advanced Biofuels—A Comprehensive Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-39, April.
    12. Lilibeth A. Acosta & Damasa B. Magcale-Macandog & K. S. Kavi Kumar & Xuefeng Cui & Elena A. Eugenio & Paula Beatrice M. Macandog & Arnold R. Salvacion & Jemimah Mae A. Eugenio, 2016. "The Role of Bioenergy in Enhancing Energy, Food and Ecosystem Sustainability Based on Societal Perceptions and Preferences in Asia," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, April.
    13. Csikós, Nándor & Tóth, Gergely, 2023. "Concepts of agricultural marginal lands and their utilisation: A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    14. Ben-Iwo, Juliet & Manovic, Vasilije & Longhurst, Philip, 2016. "Biomass resources and biofuels potential for the production of transportation fuels in Nigeria," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 172-192.
    15. Cavallo, Eugenio & Ferrari, Ester & Bollani, Luigi & Coccia, Mario, 2014. "Attitudes and behaviour of adopters of technological innovations in agricultural tractors: A case study in Italian agricultural system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 44-54.
    16. Grau, Baquero & Bernat, Esteban & Rita, Puig & Jordi-Roger, Riba & Antoni, Rius, 2013. "Environmental life cycle assessment of rapeseed straight vegetable oil as self-supply agricultural biofuel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 142-149.
    17. Christine Bosch & Manfred Zeller, 2019. "Large-scale biofuel production and food security of smallholders: Evidence from Jatropha in Madagascar," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(2), pages 431-445, April.
    18. Scarlat, Nicolae & Dallemand, Jean-Franc¸ois & Banja, Manjola, 2013. "Possible impact of 2020 bioenergy targets on European Union land use. A scenario-based assessment from national renewable energy action plans proposals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 595-606.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Perry, Miles, 2008. "Food Production Vs. Biomass Export Vs. Land-Use Change: A Cge Analysis For Argentina," MPRA Paper 13442, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Feb 2009.
    2. Dyer, George A. & Taylor, J. Edward, 2011. "The Corn Price Surge: Impacts on Rural Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1878-1887.
    3. Canabarro, N.I. & Silva-Ortiz, P. & Nogueira, L.A.H. & Cantarella, H. & Maciel-Filho, R. & Souza, G.M., 2023. "Sustainability assessment of ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Baka, Jennifer & Roland-Holst, David, 2009. "Food or fuel? What European farmers can contribute to Europe's transport energy requirements and the Doha Round," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2505-2513, July.
    5. Nguyen, Thu Lan T. & Hermansen, John E. & Mogensen, Lisbeth, 2010. "Fossil energy and GHG saving potentials of pig farming in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2561-2571, May.
    6. Sarah Jansen & William Foster & Gustavo Anríquez & Jorge Ortega, 2021. "Understanding Farm-Level Incentives within the Bioeconomy Framework: Prices, Product Quality, Losses, and Bio-Based Alternatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Argueyrolles, Robin & Delzeit, Ruth, 2022. "The interconnections between Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms and biofuels," Conference papers 333492, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    8. Aruga, Kentaka, 2011. "非遺伝子組換え大豆とエネルギーの価格関係について [Relationships among the Non-Genetically Modified Soybean and Energy Prices]," MPRA Paper 38186, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Aug 2011.
    9. Dietrich, Jan Philipp & Schmitz, Christoph & Müller, Christoph & Fader, Marianela & Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Popp, Alexander, 2012. "Measuring agricultural land-use intensity – A global analysis using a model-assisted approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 109-118.
    10. Ribeiro, Lauro André & Silva, Patrícia Pereira da, 2013. "Surveying techno-economic indicators of microalgae biofuel technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 89-96.
    11. Gal Hochman & Chrysostomos Tabakis, 2020. "Biofuels and Their Potential in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Mohlin, Kristina & Camuzeaux, Jonathan R. & Muller, Adrian & Schneider, Marius & Wagner, Gernot, 2018. "Factoring in the forgotten role of renewables in CO2 emission trends using decomposition analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 290-296.
    13. Khoo, Hsien H., 2015. "Review of bio-conversion pathways of lignocellulose-to-ethanol: Sustainability assessment based on land footprint projections," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 100-119.
    14. Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2022. "The importance of renewable gas in achieving carbon-neutrality: Insights from an energy system optimization model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    15. Fung, Timothy K.F. & Choi, Doo Hun & Scheufele, Dietram A. & Shaw, Bret R., 2014. "Public opinion about biofuels: The interplay between party identification and risk/benefit perception," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 344-355.
    16. Batidzirai, B. & Smeets, E.M.W. & Faaij, A.P.C., 2012. "Harmonising bioenergy resource potentials—Methodological lessons from review of state of the art bioenergy potential assessments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6598-6630.
    17. Stefan Mann, 2016. "Governing complementary responsibility goods through hybrid systems in a globalizing world," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 9(1), pages 14-21.
    18. Winden, Matthew & Cruze, Nathan & Haab, Tim & Bakshi, Bhavik, 2015. "Monetized value of the environmental, health and resource externalities of soy biodiesel," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 18-24.
    19. Stephen P. Holland & Jonathan E. Hughes & Christopher R. Knittel & Nathan C. Parker, 2013. "Unintended Consequences of Transportation Carbon Policies: Land-Use, Emissions, and Innovation," NBER Working Papers 19636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Reijnders, L., 2009. "Are forestation, bio-char and landfilled biomass adequate offsets for the climate effects of burning fossil fuels?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2839-2841, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:101:y:2009:i:3:p:197-199. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.