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Carving Out Policy Space for Sustainability in Biofuel Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Liz Marshall
Liz Marshall*
Affiliation:
World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C.
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Abstract

Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are increasingly promoted as green alternatives to petroleum-derived transport fuels. Scaling up feedstock production to produce enough biofuel to displace a significant portion of current petroleum demand will put pressure on land and water resources both domestically and internationally, however, and could potentially be accompanied by unacceptable changes in landscape-level land use patterns and provisioning of ecosystem services. Ensuring that feedstock production is sustainable and that biofuels provide the social and environmental benefits that are often attributed to them will require a carefully designed portfolio of agricultural, forestry, energy, and trade policies related to biofuels and feedstock production. Despite the difficulties associated with development and application of such policies, they should be in place before further policy incentive is provided for expansion of biofuel industries.

Keywords

biofuelssustainabilityland usegreenhouse gas accounting
Type
Invited Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , October 2007 , pp. 183 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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