BIOFUELS, BIODIVERSITY AND ENERGY SECURITY: What are the environmental and social impacts

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• BIOFUELS, BIODIVERSITY AND ENERGY SECURITY What
  are the environmental and social impacts?
• Jeffrey A. McNeely
• Chief Scientist
• IUCN-The International for Conservation of Nature
• Presented to
• SCOPE Conference on Biofuels
• Gummersbach, Germany
• 22 September 2008

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• Converting food crops into biofuel is a crime
  against humanity.
• Jean Zeigler, United Nations Special Rapporteur
  on the Right to Food, October 2007

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2007 Problems with oil supply became dramatic
Energy security
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Lets face it. Its all about olive oil.
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Energy prices
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And of course the threat of climate change
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This Ferrari F430 runs on biofuel
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A post-petroleum future?
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How will the poor adapt to more expensive oil?
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An iPodstill needsenergy
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But another concern is rural livelihoods. What
does bioenergy mean for farmers?
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Nepal 90 of energy comes from fuelwood

• Domestic use of roundwood
• for fuel
• 98 in Lebanon
• 66 in Jordan
• 44 in Turkey

Globally, 2 billion people rely on traditional
biomass fuels.
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Our modern societies are dependent on high energy
use
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Can you believe it? Since we installed our
wood-burning stove weve spent next to nothing on
heating oil.
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What about alternative sources of oil?
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Albertas tar sands contain billions of barrels
of oil, but current yield is only 1 million
barrels per day and requires 3-10 barrels of
water for each barrel of oil. Maximum possible
production 3 million barrels per day
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Coal remains a major source of energy
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We need to look at all the options
Source International Energy Agency
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Alternatives to oil Human power
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Bicycles played a critical role in the Viet Nam
war
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Alternatives to Oil Biomass
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Biofuel yields of selected first generation
ethanol and biodiesel feedstock (l not c)
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Some market information

• Biofuel market development during the last 5
  years now 3 global gasoline consumption
• Biofuels may share 10 of world fuel use for
  transport by 2025
• Less than 10 of global biofuels production is
  internationally traded
• But important expansion in global trade key
  consumers (EU, US, and Japan) will not have the
  domestic capacity to meet internal demand

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Biodiesel

• Produced from seeds such as palm, jatropha,
  canola, sunflower and soy

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Rail line between Mumbai and Delhi is planted
with Jatropha and the trains run on 15-20
biodiesel
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Dangers of Jatropha

• Highly invasive
• Useless for food or fodder
• Requires water and fertilizer
• Requires processing facilities

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2000-2005, Indonesia planted 1.6 million ha of
oil palm, with US110 million in
government subsidies. 9.8 million ha of forest
were lost.
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Forest growing on peat soils in Indonesia are
burned to make way for oil palm plantations
Releasing more carbon than will ever be stored by
the palms
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Some of the diesel fuel from Indonesian oil palm
went to feed this truck
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World fuel ethanol production
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Sugarcane produces the most ethanol per hectare
Burning of sugarcane fields before harvesting
emits carbon
One million jobs, mostly low-paying
In Brazil, sugarcane fields lose up to 30 tons of
topsoil per ha per year
How can smallholders work with large processors?
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Using US maize to produce ethanol increased
tortilla price in Mexico
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The cost of producing Beer in Germany is
increasing, as farmers turn from growing barley
to growing biofuels
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The European Commissioner for Agriculture
cancelled subsidies for set-asides in 2008,
because of demand for biofuels. The EU has
mandated that biofuel must provide 5.6 of
transport energy by 2010.
Policy may have gotten ahead of science
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Status of British Birds
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Second generation biofuels

• produced from agricultural waste, wood and grasses

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or this?
This.
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Iogen has been producing cellulosic biofuels
since 2004. 2008 production 80 million litres
Iogen
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And what aboutthe small farmer?
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Third generation biofuels?
Colorados Solix Biofuels harvests algae with a
field of bioreactors that take a kind of
painters dropcloth to bubble CO through its
system
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Marine algae 10 times the oil content of oil
palm (Botryococcus braunii produce 75 of their
dry weight as hydrocarbons)
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On energy the answer is easy
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Potential Reductions in GHG Emissions by
Feedstock Type
On climate, its also clear what is the best
feedstock
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Social justice raises more difficult issues
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Some key complexities of bioenergy remain

• Diverse components Feedstock supply, conversion
  technology, and energy use
• Diverse economic, social, and environmental
  factors
• Diverse scales, from local to international
• Diverse objectives, from energy autonomy at the
  local level to serving international markets

What should be the basis for the necessary
trade-offs?
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Three main systems of biomass production for
energy

• System 1. Small-holder production for local use
• System 2. Small-holder production with
  commerical processing
• System 3. Medium- and large-scale commercial
  production

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System 1. A multifunctional landscape with
bioenergy potential
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System 2. Canola in France is often sold
commercially by smallholders
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Enkoping, Sweden First European town powered by
bioenergy
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System 3. Maize and sugarcane are often grown
commercially for external markets
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The US has 113 ethanol distilleries and 77 more
are under construction. Potential capacity
Over 44 billion liters (about 5 of US fuel
consumption)
Business Advisory 16 Ethanol Plants Filing
Bankruptcy, Many More to Come DTN 20 June 2008.
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(Source Milder et al., 2008)
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Some recommendations

• Gain clear understanding of economic,
  environmental and social impacts of bioenergy
  production trade before making policy
• Be guided by risk assessment of comparative
  advantages, land availability and food security
  impacts
• Encourage investment on better environmental
  technologies and practices for all renewable
  sources of energy
• Do not expect biomass to be a main source of
  energy conservation often remains the most
  cost-effective option
• Use overall land use plans as the basis for
  planning bioenergy production at the landscape
  scale