Biofuels – Frequently asked questions
What are biofuels?
Biofuels are liquid fuels made from organic matter, usually crops. They can be blended with fossil fuels to run in conventional cars. Ethanol which is produced from corn, wheat, sugarcane or sugar beet can be used as substitute for petrol. Biodiesel can be used as a substitute for diesel and is usually derived from oilseeds such as canola (rapeseed) or palm oil.
Where are they produced?
The USA is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of ethanol, and the EU the world’s biggest producer and consumer of biodiesel. Brazil is the second biggest producer of ethanol, and the world’s biggest exporter of biofuel. Other developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia are also investing in biofuel production.
Why are you saying that biofuels won’t help stop climate change?
The evidence suggests that, by increasing demand for land to grow crops, biofuels are driving the expansion of agriculture into natural carbon sinks such as wetlands and rainforests resulting in huge carbon emissions that will take decades if not centuries of biofuel use to repay. Far safer (more climate friendly) and more cost effective strategies to reduce emissions from transport exist.
What alternatives to biofuels does Oxfam propose?
Governments should prioritize policies which can reduce demand for oil as a means to safely reduce emissions from transport and dependency on foreign oil. These include:
- Meaningful and ambitious car efficiency standards
- Investment in public transport
- Promotion of car sharing schemes
- Promotion of low-rolling resistance tyres
- Promotion of tyre pressure monitoring systems
- Congestion charging
- Better enforcement of speed limits through intelligent speed adaptation systems
What about sustainability standards?
Oxfam believes that sustainability standards do have a role to play, particularly around plantation-level issues such as labour standards and land rights, but they are unable to deal with ‘macro’-level issues such as food price inflation and indirect land use change. Therefore Oxfam is calling for new biofuel targets to be dropped.
If the EU scraps its biofuel target, will it still be able to meet its overall target of 30% renewable energy by 2020?
The renewable energy target must be able to deliver on greenhouse gas (GHG) savings – the inability of biofuels to do so, combined with their negative impacts on livelihoods in developing countries, makes them an unacceptable part of the overall renewable target.
How do biofuels drive up food prices?
Biofuels consume food that would otherwise be used for human and animal consumption. By taking large volumes off the market, biofuels are creating a scarcity that drives up prices. The price of food has risen dramatically in recent years – about 83% over 3 years according to the World Bank. The role of biofuels in this is viewed by impartial and credible experts as significant – the International Food Policy Research Institute and IMF have estimated that biofuels explain up to 30% of this recent food price inflation. The World Bank estimates an even higher contribution of about 65%.
Can biofuels help poor people?
When biofuel policies are targeted at increasing access to energy for poor people in rural areas, there may be very important benefits, particularly for women.
Producing biofuels can offer the possibility of improved livelihoods for poor farmers in developing countries. However, in many cases biofuels production is done on massive plantations with labor rights violations and oppressive terms of employment. There are many examples of biofuels production leading to land-grabs and displacement of poor people from their lands.
In addition, since many developing countries must import most of their fuel, biofuels offer the potential to replace expensive oil imports with home-grown fuels. But as commodity prices soar, so do the costs of producing biofuels, and for many countries it may be very difficult to realize savings through substitution of biofuels for oil.
Don’t we need biofuels to reduce our dependency on oil?
Biofuels can only replace a tiny fraction of rich country oil consumption – even if we converted all the edible oils in the world to biodiesel, this would only displace about 10% of fossil diesel use. Current biofuels are simply complements to, rather than replacements for, fossil fuels – and subject to new risks of crop failure and disease.
Far cheaper and safer policy measures exist to reduce dependency on foreign oil – policies to reduce demand for transport fuel, such as promotion of efficient cars, investment in public transport and so on can reduce oil imports and carbon emissions far more effectively.
Why are some governments resisting changing biofuels law?
Knowledge about biofuels is changing rapidly with new studies being conducted and with new circumstances, like rapid inflation in food prices. Many policy makers have not yet digested this information. In addition, there are powerful special interests that benefit from the biofuels mandates – in particular agricultural producers who supply the feedstocks for biofuels (maize, canola/rapeseed, soya). These interests are lobbying to preserve the existing mandates and subsidies.
