Biofuels and the environment

Biofuels and the environment.

The Ripple Effect: Biofuels, Food Security, and the Environment

Sustainability of food, energy and environment with biofuels

Growing reliance on food-based biofuels has created considerable controversy about their impact on food prices and the environment and led to scepticism about their sustainability. This review describes the concept of sustainability in the context of biofuels and then discusses the factors affecting the economic viability of current and next-generation biofuels and their environmental and socia...

Neoliberalising technoscience and environment: EU policy for competitive, sustainable biofuels

Since the 1990s the European Union’s biofuels policy has espoused several aims: energy security, greenhouse gas (GHG) savings, technology export and rural development. On these various grounds, by 2007 the EU was moving towards statutory targets, i.e. to mandate larger markets for ‘renewable energy’ including biofuels. However, controversy erupted over harmful environmental and social effects, ...

Biofuels

The global energy market provides humans with about 370 exajoules of energy per year, which is equivalent to about 170 million barrels of oil per day (Box 1) or about 11.73 terrawatts (TW) per hour [1]. Approximately 95% of this energy comes from fossil fuels. Additionally, the International Energy Agency suggests that direct combustion of plant biomass provides about one-third of the energy ne...