Biofuel boom Faces Food Security and Environmental Concerns at COP30
United Nations climate summit COP30 host Brazil is pressing nations to pledge to quadruple teh global use of enduring fuels by 2035, including biofuels, hydrogen and biogases, but environmentalists warn that making fuel from crops harms food security and nature.
“When land grows fuel instead of food,someone else must clear more land,or eat less,” said Timothy Searchinger,senior research scholar at Princeton University. “countries believe they are cutting emissions because biofuel emissions are counted as zero. In reality, they shift the pressure onto land and food systems.”
That pressure is already visible in India, which has rapidly increased the percentage of ethanol in petrol and helped save some US$12 billion in oil imports in the past decade. However, it has come at the cost of arable land being diverted to growing crops for fuel instead of food and drivers have complained about damage to their engines.
But Brazil’s long-term growth in biofuels has been smoother, with biofuels now powering about a quarter of the transport sector last year, with an estimated 762,000 jobs in related activities, according to a recent report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
The head of the Toyota Foundation in Brazil, Roberto Braun, said Toyota had been active in biofuels in brazil for 16 years, with sugarcane and corn plantations to make ethanol feedstock. “This is a realistic and immediate solution to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector, not only in Brazil, but in other nations, especially those in the Global South,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the summit.
The international Energy Agency (IEA) said meeting Brazil’s goal of quadrupling sustainable fuel use by 2035, which 19 countries have signed up to so far, would more than double global biofuel production.
Green backlash
But green groups are concerned about the impact of biofuels on demand for land and potential nature destruction, especially in biodiverse regions such as Brazil and Indonesia. Brussels-based non-profit Transport & Environment (T&E) last month said global biofuel production emits 16 percent more carbon dioxide than the fossil fuels it replaces.
Biofuels: Balancing Climate Goals with Food Security Concerns
Biofuels are gaining traction as a potential solution to combine climate action with economic advancement, particularly in countries like Brazil and India. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that accelerated biofuels development could attract $1.5 trillion in cumulative investments by 2035, offering an economic boost to emerging economies and rural regions. https://www.iea.org/reports/biofuels Though, meaningful concerns remain regarding the sustainability of biofuel production, particularly its impact on food security and land use.
A letter signed by over 100 scientists ahead of COP30 warned that meeting growing transport biofuel demand could require approximately 52 million hectares of cropland by 2030 – an area comparable to the size of Spain. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/29/biofuels-climate-crisis-food-security-scientists-warning Without robust safeguards, they argue, subsidies and targets for crop-based fuels could exacerbate existing food and forest crises.
“Safeguards, such as caps on food and feed crops, and excluding high-emitting feedstocks like palm and soy oil, are essential,” states Cian Delaney, a campaigner with Transport & Environment (T&E). https://www.transportenvironment.org/ Delaney points to Europe’s early biofuel policies, where increased demand led to deforestation in Southeast Asia due to a surge in palm oil imports, particularly in Indonesia. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/palm-oil-linked-deforestation-continues-despite-pledges-report-2023-11-28/
While greener alternatives exist – utilizing non-edible plants, agricultural residues, or algae – scaling these technologies has proven challenging, particularly in countries like India. research by Princeton University’s Tim Searchinger, co-author of a World Resources Institute report, highlights the land-use efficiency of option energy sources. The report indicates that solar panels can generate over 100 times more usable energy per hectare than biofuels. https://www.wri.org/research/biofuels
Despite these concerns,India has aggressively pursued biofuel integration,recently launching petrol blended with 20% ethanol (E20) – five years ahead of its initial target. The Indian government claims this shift has saved on oil imports and avoided 54 million metric tons of carbon emissions over the past decade. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1986499
Though, the rapid rollout has sparked debate regarding potential crop diversion and dissatisfaction among drivers. Ramya Natarajan, from the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, emphasizes the difficulty of balancing climate and food security objectives, citing analysis suggesting India may need to cultivate an additional 4 to 8 million hectares of maize by 2030 to sustain the E20 blend. https://cstp.org.in/
“The trade-offs will be hard to avoid,” Natarajan concludes, underscoring the complex challenges inherent in scaling biofuel production sustainably.