[Sustain] UK Guardian: New Study - Biofuels Will Cause Release Of 2 to 9 Times More CO2

[Eric Brooks]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/17/climatechange.energy


  Biofuels switch a mistake, say researchers

    * Tristan Farrow
    * The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian>
    * Friday August 17 2007

20% of the UK's agricultural land could be used to grow biofuels, such 
as rape seed, by 2010. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release 
between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than 
fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions 
from biofuels.

Biofuels - petrol and diesel extracted from plants - are presented as an 
environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels because the crops 
absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.

The study warns that forests must not be cleared to make way for biofuel 
crops. Clearing forests produces an immediate release of carbon gases 
into the atmosphere, accompanied by a loss of habitats, wildlife and 
livelihoods, the researchers said.

Britain is committed to substituting 10% of its transport fuel with 
biofuels under Europewide plans to slash carbon emissions by 2020.

"Biofuel policy is rushing ahead without understanding the 
implications," said Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, a 
conservation charity. "It is a mistake in climate change terms to use 
biofuels."

Dr Righelato's study, with Dominick Spracklen from the University of 
Leeds, is the first to calculate the impact of biofuel carbon emissions 
across the whole cycle of planting, extraction and conversion into fuel. 
They report in the journal Science that between two and nine times more 
carbon emissions are avoided by trapping carbon in trees and forest soil 
than by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels.

Around 40% of Europe's agricultural land would be needed to grow biofuel 
crops to meet the 10% fossil fuel substitution target. That demand on 
arable land cannot be met in the EU or the US, say the scientists, so is 
likely to shift the burden on land in developing countries.

The National Farmers Union said 20% of Britain's agricultural land could 
be used to grow biofuels by 2010. However, the researchers say 
reforesting the land would be a better way to reduce emissions.

Biofuels look good in climate change terms from a Western perspective, 
said Dr Spracklen, but globally they actually lead to higher carbon 
emissions. "Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia among others have huge 
deforestation programmes to supply the world biofuel market", he said.

The researchers say the emphasis should be placed on increasing the 
efficiency of fossil fuel use and moving to carbon-free alternatives 
such as renewable energy.


-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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