Learning from the failures of biofuels governance

Abstract

While many policies designed to increase the use of biofuels were promoted at least in part as a climate change solution, biofuels made from agricultural crops are increasingly seen as part of the problem when considering global environmental change. Research on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with biofuel-related land use change (Hertel et al., 2010) and fertilizer use (Melillo et al., 2009) challenges the idea that biofuels are automatically low-carbon fuels. Major crops that can be used to make biofuel—sugarcane, maize, oil palm, and soy—are usually grown in monoculture plantations whose ecological impacts are well documented, and recent evidence continues to solidify what is known about the impacts of biofuel crop expansion on water (Dominguez-Faus, Powers, Burken, & Alvarez, 2009; Larsen et al., 2014) and biodiversity.

Keywords

• biofuel
• governance
• ethanol
• biodiesel