Ag Policy Blog
The IPCC on Biofuels: Good or Bad?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its climate adaptation report last week that included citations from studies raising concerns about the global expansion of biofuels. Scientists writing the report detailed tradeoffs in various policies that may mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions but create problems in adapting to the effects of climate change, and vice versa. Each policy decision regarding energy creates tradeoffs that must be considered. In other words, low-carbon, non-fossil fuel energy solutions can cause other complications for society.
The IPCC report said biofuels can be part of a strategy to reduce carbon emissions, but the report also cites risks from conflicts between using land to grow crops for biofuels and growing crops for food. The report also expressed concern about land-uses changes from biofuels.
A reporter attending the North American Agricultural Journalists meeting asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy about the IPCC's perspective on biofuels.
Vilsack said he thinks the IPCC's report was directed to other nations that have less productive agriculture than the U.S. Agriculture and forestry in the U.S. work as a carbon sink. Moreover, biofuels allow the U.S. to use the full capacity of the country's agricultural waste. The country also has figured out ways to produce more efficient biofuels that reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. "That may not necessarily be the case in other countries," he said.
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McCarthy said she thought EPA was doing a good job of examining the lifecycle emissions from feedstocks and will keep doing that to move biofuels forward. Of the IPCC analysis, McCarthy said the scientists can speak on generalities, but EPA must implement the law.
"The IPCC report was actually a quite good report in addressing the climate science, but I think the Renewable Fuels Standard that Congress enacted is the standard in place," she said. "It's the law. EPA's job is to implement it and that's exactly what we're going to do."
It should be noted that the role of biofuels in the complex issue of climate change wasn't emphasized by IPCC authors. They were, however, worried about growing global food insecurity in the future. That issue permeated the IPCC's report in various ways, including future yield losses for major crops.
On biofuels, the IPCC cites studies indicating:
Food production requires significant amounts of energy, but the major link between food and energy in regards to climate change will come from competition between food and bioenergy production for land and water. This will be an issue not only with biofuels but using crops or crop waste for other forms of energy as well.
Water for biofuels could help drive up the use of irrigated water usage, resulting in more pressure on freshwater resources with potential negative impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
With trends in population, income and bioenergy demand, there will be continued efforts to expanded global arable lands, though the extent is uncertain and the quality of new land that may come into production would also be questionable.
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