Bullet Points: Biofuels, At What Cost?

BIOFUELS: AT WHAT COST?
Glenn Prickett (Conservation International and the Center for Environment Leadership in Business)

• Central points of a sustainable energy community:
  • Weaning the nation off oil
  • Diversifying sources of energy while understanding we will probably not be free of oil anytime soon
  • Strategy should focus on conservation, efficiency, and diversity of renewables
  • Increase focus on conservation of natural resources, ecosystems, and species
    • As we release CO2 into atmosphere — which contributes to climate change — consider the amount of CO2 sequestration necessary to offset it
      Biofuels aid in lowering the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere
• Transportation biofuel feasibility and its connection with the environment and economic development:
  • Agricultural biofuels have a greater input to output ratio than crude oil
  • Prospects of biofuels; intriguing opportunities for developing countries (e.g., Philippines and Cambodia) 
    • Brazil grew tremendously from massive sugar-cane capacity (sugar-cane ethanol)
• Use of land for energy is an opportunity cost:
  • For food-based consumption needs 
  • Much Brazilian rainforest has been cut down in order to make land available for sugar cane crops 
• Sustainability balance between food, land, and energy demands; not fully realized
• Agriculture is a major contributor to environmental degradation:
  • 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions come from burning and clearing of forests, largely as a result of agricultural expansion 
  • 14% come from agriculture and livestock operations globally
  • Production of biofuel increases expansion of agriculture and further potential to degrade ecosystems. Hence, there is a need to “think carefully and plan strategically about the expansion of agriculture” 
• Recommendations:
  • Pull together land and resource suitability information in order to provide governments with a set of viable strategic options in agricultural expansion 
  • Move beyond sugarcane, palm oil, and corn ethanols