Biofuels hit bumpy road

[half greek]

At a time when conservationists are questioning the future of biofuels, theEU is pressing ahead with plans for a tenth of all transport fuel to come fromenergy crops by the end of the decade

by THRASY PETROPOULOS

While Europe debates the ecological merits of biofuels, a petrol pump attendant in Quezon City, Manila, has different concerns. Southeast Asia's biofuel makers are facing a crisis after a surge in palm oil prices

ONCE seen as the antidote to our over-dependence on fossil fuels, biofuels are now being blamed for the destruction of rainforests and for agricultural land-use changes that have driven up the price of food staples in developing countries.

Indeed, such has been biofuels' fall from grace that even the long-held view that they are "carbon-neutral", meaning that the CO2 absorbed in their cultivation is equal to what they emit in their conversion into bioethanol and biodiesel, is now being questioned.

A US study published in Science magazine in January argues that the conversion of peatlands, savannahs and grasslands in Brazil, southeast Asia and the US for the production of certain energy crops has caused the release of up to 420 times more CO2 than actual greenhouse gas reductions provided by their replacement of fossil fuels.

The study goes on to say that rather than producing 20 percent savings in greenhouse gas emissions, corn-based ethanol nearly doubles CO2 emissions over 30 years.

Added to this, the experience of palm oil, once regarded as an ideal source of biofuel, illustrates the potential for social, environmental and financial repercussions.

According to Dutch pressure group Wetlands International, half the space created for new palm oil plantations in Malaysia came from clearing and draining burned peatland. Not only has this sent huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, but it has also removed a crucial source of CO2 absorption. On top of this, crude palm oil prices for the second most widely-used edible oil have more than doubled in the past two years.

Such research has led to the EU hastily attaching a "lifecycle sustainability" clause to the biofuel target outlined in its proposed package of new climate and energy legislation. While the European Commission stuck to its previously-specified goal that 10 percent of all transport energy within the bloc should come from biofuels by 2020, it now specifies that those biofuels should come from "viable and sustainable sources".

The current EU legislation, which was incorporated into Greek law in 2005, stipulates that 5.75 percent of transport energy should come from biofuels by the end of the decade.

Generation game

At a speech at the Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy in Athens on February 22, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the commission recognises that large-scale use of biofuels could have "negative social and environmental consequences" and, rather than help drive down greenhouse gas emissions, could add to global warming.

"The consequential CO2 emissions [from producing biofuels] could be larger than the energy supposedly saved during their eventual use as fuel," he said. "Furthermore, the expected rapid increase in the demand for biofuels may lead to the abandonment of traditional cultivation and the cultivation of new land, with negative impacts on ecosystems. There is the danger of tropical rainforests being sacrificed for the benefit of energy crops."

He pointed out that the unregulated production of biofuels would lead to a rise in prices of many primary agricultural products in poorer countries and that it would no longer be possible to guarantee food for a large part of their population.

"From an environmental perspective, so-called second-generation biofuels [including agricultural waste] are expected to have better results," he added.

The fact remains, however, that Greece's demand for diesel will, according to development ministry estimates, reach 2.3 million tonnes a year by 2010, equivalent to a 48-percent rise compared to 1992 levels. For petrol (diesel and lead-replacement petrol), the rise will be even more dramatic, reaching 4.4 million tonnes a year (or a 79 percent rise compared to 1992) by the end of the decade.

And one-tenth of those amounts will, by law, need to come from biofuels.

Sustaining momentum

The fear of conservationists is that the vegetable oils, cereals, corn, sugarbeet and other energy crops grown for biofuels will lead to a greater demand for those crops from the food market and, by extension, to previously uncultivated land being cleared in developing countries.

"Sustainability is the big question for Europe and the rest of the world," explained Myrsini Christou, a biomass expert at Greece's Centre for Renewable Energy Sources. "We are in favour of sustainability criteria because there are no other ways to control the land use and economic changes in developing countries. It seems certain that Europe will need enormous quantities of vegetable oils and energy crops and at least 30 percent of that will need to be imported."

While the crops used in bioethanol production (small-grain cereals, corn and sugarbeets) are cultivated in large quantities in Greece, no processing plants exist for their conversion into biofuel. For biodiesel, however, 13 companies are now generating up to 114,000 tonnes of fuel for the local market.

"According to the development ministry, between 10 and 30 percent of Greece's biodiesel is derived from locally sourced raw materials, principally sunflower oil," said Christou. "The problem is that it is very difficult to determine accurate figures and to trace whether the sunflower oil goes to the food or biofuel market. As far as bioethanol is concerned, one Greek company has said that two of its units will be converted into biofuel production, but they are waiting for EU standardisation criteria, which will not come before 2009."

Last November, Greece's Foundation for Financial and Industrial Research added to the biofuel debate, stating that the EU's 10 percent biofuel goal for transport fuel was not based on sound "impact assessment" analysis.

A report by the foundation said: "We believe it will seriously harm certain EU member states, among them Greece, leading to a serious absence of industrial food and drink raw materials and, consequentially, to an unsustainable rise in food and drink prices."

Budding industry

Christou argues that recent hikes in energy crop prices have been determined by the food industry and not the biomass market and that these prices should stabilise. However, she acknowledges that in Europe financial concerns are likely to play as big a part of the biomass debate as environmental concerns.

The 89,000 owners of biofuel-powered cars in Sweden breathed an enormous sigh of relief earlier this month when an EU threat of a tariff increase of more than 30 percent on the price of imported ethanol was withdrawn.

In Greece, two recent discussions organised by the American Farm School in Thessaloniki on alternative crops attracted hundreds of farmers, according to Evangelos Vergos, the school's director of lifelong learning.

"There was enormous interest in biofuels," Vergos said. "With EU subsidies ending, farmers are desperate and energy crops are seen as crops of the future. The Greek market in biodiesel is already lively and, with subsidies for sugarbeet already diminishing, the country's largest sugar refinery is looking at converting some of its plants to ethanol production."

Common Agricultural Policy subsidies, currently amounting to 90 euros a stremma (1,000m2) regardless of whether that land is cultivated, will end by 2013, although the 45-euro-per-hectare (10,000m2) grant for growing energy crops will remain in place.


ATHENS NEWS , 29/02/2008, page: A06
Article code: C13276A061


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