Poorly designed biofuel policies can contribute to deforestation around the world as natural land is cleared and cultivated to meet rising demand for agricultural goods. Deforestation is a leading cause of global warming. Please click on the map for a larger version, or download PDF version.
CATF Applauds EPA Decision to Regulate Biofuels' Full Effect on Climate
In a final rule revising the RFS, EPA agreed to calculate the extent to which biofuel production mandate indirectly affects land use patterns around the world by increasing demand for farmland. CATF applauds the decision to account for the impact those land use changes have on global warming. However, much work remains to be done to ensure US biofuel policy promotes fuels that truly benefit the environment.
Science Article: Bioenergy Policies Must Not Ignore Indirect Land Use Emissions, October 23, 2009
In an article published in Science titled "Fixing a Critical Climate Error," a collection of energy experts found that the GHG emissions accounting method used in the Kyoto Protocol and in many national-level policies fails to consider emissions from land use when biomass for energy is harvested or grown. Instead, the policies treat all bioenergy as carbon neutral -- even though there are significant differences in net emissions depending on the source of the biomass being used and its net land-use effects.
CATF Urges EPA to Strengthen Emissions Analysis in RFS Proposal, September 25, 2009
In a pair of comment letters submitted to EPA, CATF commended the agency for counting GHG emissions from indirect land use change in its proposed RFS implementation rule, and urged EPA to base it analysis on the most current data and modeling tools. CATF filed comments in conjunction with a collection of other environmental groups on a wide range of issues, while also providing EPA with separate detailed comments on issues of particular concern.
- Environmental Community Comments on EPA's RFS2 Proposal
- CATF and FOE Comments on EPA's RFS2 Proposal
- Press Release on CATF's Comments
CATF: Senate Committee Must Allow EPA to Consider Land Use Change Emissions, September 21, 2009
In a letter submitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee, CATF and dozens of other environmental organizations called on senators to reject an amendment that would thwart EPA's attempt to scientifically analyze the greenhouse gas emissions that result from land use changes around the world related to increased biofuel production.
Modeling Uncertainty Is Not a Reasonable Basis for Ignoring ILUC Emissions, July 14, 2009
Analysis by Tim Searchinger explains why modeling uncertainty does not logically or practically justify ignoring overseas emissions from the land use change associated with US biofuel production mandates.
EPA's RFS Proposal: One Step Forward ... and Another Step Back?, May 5, 2009
According to its proposed rule for implementing revisions to the Renewable Fuel Standard, EPA plans to measure greenhouse gas emissions from land use changes directly and indirectly caused by biofuel production -- something CATF has repeatedly called on the agency to do.
CATF Calls on EPA to Count Indirect GHG Emissions in RFS, March 18, 2009
In a pair of letters delivered to EPA Administrator Jackson, CATF and other environmental organizations insisted that a proposed rule for implementing the Renewable Fuel Standard account for the greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land use change associated with increased biofuels production.
CATF Announces Platform for Redirecting US Biofuel Policy, February 11, 2009 [PDF]
CATF and other organizations announced a framework for systematically redesigning of US biofuel policy, aimed at ensuring that biofuels advance–rather than hinder–widely held environmental and social objectives.
CATF Criticizes Biofuel Industry Effort to Undermine Global Warming Standards, October 31, 2008 [PDF]
CATF and two other organizations called on the Environmental Protection Agency to meet its responsibility under the law and reject a biofuel industry attempt to weaken land use-related global warming standards for ethanol.
CATF Letter Urging Senators to Suspend RFS and Support Additional Research, July 9, 2008 [PDF]
Letter submitted by CATF, Environmental Working Group, and Friends of the Earth to Senators Carper and Voinovich, in advance of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's July 10, 2008 hearing on the implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard.
CATF Comments Urging EPA to Waive RFS, June 24, 2008 [PDF]
Comments submitted by CATF, Environmental Working Group, and Friends of the Earth on June 23, 2008, urging EPA to waive the 2008 Renewable Fuel Standard in light of concerns about biofuels' negative environmental impacts.
CATF Op-Ed on "Ethanol's Failed Promise" in the Washington Post, April 22, 2008
CATF Testimony before the Massachusetts Advanced Biofuel Task Force, January 17, 2008 [PDF]
CATF Supplemental Comments on MA ABTF Draft Summary Recommendations, March 19, 2008 [PDF]
Testimony and comments submitted by CATF concerning the biofuel policies proposed by the Massachusetts legislature and the state's Advanced Biofuel Task Force.
Study: Land Use-Related GHG Emissions from Biodiesel Production Overwhelm Climate Benefits, February 7, 2008 [PDF]
A Clean Air Task Force-supported study by Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich looks at a critical but under-explored issue in biofuels and climate: the effect of increasing demand for arable land to grow biofuels crops. The study concludes that the carbon dioxide releases from land use change – that is, from the land clearing that is needed to support biofuel production – overwhelm the emissions reductions typically associated with biodiesel use. The biodiesel study is a companion piece to an article by Searchinger et al. that focuses on the land use-related climate impacts of ethanol production. The ethanol study was published in the journal Science on February 7, 2008
[Homepage soy harvest photo (c) ChicagoFD107. Image from BigStockPhoto.com]
CATF Position Paper on Biofuels Policy Development, December 2007 [PDF]
CATF Op-Ed on the "Biodiesel Fallacy" in the Boston Globe, November 26, 2007
Leaping Before They Looked: Lessons from Europe's Experience with the 2003 Biofuels Directive, October 2007 [PDF, 6MB]
Although the current U.S. focus on boosting biofuel production and usage may be well-intentioned, caution regarding unintended consequences of these policies is warranted. In 2003 the EU issued a Directive promoting the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels for transport. The Directive sought/seeks to have biofuels account for 2% of EU transport fuels by 2005, 5.75% by 2010, and in a 2007 addendum, 10% by 2020.
The EU mandate was primarily driven by farm policy, to create new outlets for agricultural and forestry products, and to diversify rural economies. Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), energy security, and improved environmental impacts were cited as ancillary benefits of the policies. However, due in part to global market forces and economic efficiencies in developing countries, the result is that the Directive has exacerbated some of the very problems it was designed to solve, driving up food prices, leading to increased deforestation in tropical countries, worsening global warming, and increasing imports of bio-oils.
The developing world offers both cheap land and inexpensive labor for bioenergy crop production, and tropical energy crops such as palm oil offer greater energy yields and lower production costs than traditional oil seeds and grains. The impact of the EU Directive has been to increase competition for food, water, land, and other resources in developed and developing countries, and to increase GHG emissions, tropical deforestation, and biodiversity loss. Biofuel production also encourages large-scale land-clearing and monoculture cropping, with attendant poverty, human rights abuses, and ecological degradation.
Importantly, while tropical deforestation is occurring at a staggering rate in many countries seeking to produce biofuels for the new and growing markets, the destruction of boggy peatlands in Southeast Asia now represents one of the leading sources of global warming emissions worldwide. The process of draining, clearing, and burning peatlands for palm oil plantations releases the equivalent of 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel use, making Indonesia the 3rd ranking emitter of CO2 emissions in the world, behind only the US and China.
EU member countries are also now realizing that the climate benefits of even those biofuels produced within the EU are in many cases overstated. Some life-cycle analyses (LCAs) of biofuel production cite increased use of nitrogen-based fertilizers as negating much of the climate benefits associated with biofuels, and a new batch of research indicates that the benefits may be erased altogether by climate-harmful deforestation caused by displaced food production.
These unintended consequences – though not all unanticipated – highlight the need for updated, comprehensive tools to analyze the true net impacts of policies that increase biofuels use, particularly as the US contemplates following the same path that the EU has traversed. Current LCAs do not account for GHG emissions and other impacts to global warming that may be caused by changes in land use; food, fuel, and materials markets; and impacts and demand for natural resources such as water. Until we develop these tools to inform policy development, we should exhibit great caution in regards to biofuels production and use, and should take heed of lessons being learned elsewhere.