Potential positive socio-environmental effects of biofuels:

(Demirbas, 2009):

Social:

1. Improve international energy security through the diversification of sources from which energy is derived; this will be especially important in the future as fossil fuel depletion intensifies.
2. Job creation during biofuel cultivation, harvesting, processing and biofuel processing plants building
3. Increasing the demand and the price of agricultural produce, which will have positive impacts on the producers, especially in the poorer regions of the world, thus helping to alleviate poverty.
4. Improve farmers’ income security through a potential diversification of crops on which they rely.
5. Investment in infrastructure by energy companies, which can be especially beneficial in the developing in countries

Environmental:

1. Decrease in global GHG emissions relative to fossil fuel consumption for energy
2. Decrease in air pollution with gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide relative to fossil fuels utilization (see table below).
3. Some other environmental benefits, such as soil quality improvement

Case study: Rodrigues et al. (2007):

Rodrigues et al. (2007) modelled the effects of the expansion of cultivating of oleaginous biofuel crops in five areas of Brazil. As we would expect from what we already know about biofuels, such an expansion would mean an initial increase in GHG emissions due to the more intensive machinery and fertilizer utilization required, but the authors conclude that overall a GHG emissions reduction will be observed on fossil fuel substitution. However, I would like to point out that the paper does not incorporate the NOx emissions suggested by Tim Searchinger in his paper (2008) and in the video in my previous post. This may make the results overly-optimistic. However, at the same time, the by-products use not incorporated and including this could increase benefit; also points out that there may not be enough land to physically be able to optimize the amount of fertilizer used as Zamboni et al., 2011 suggested and still meet the demand.

Additionally, regardless of the emissions effects, environmental benefits of soil quality improvement were suggested under cultivation of degraded lands and under the scenario of rotational crop management. This is because since primary productivity on degraded lands is typically low due to the limited nutrients available there, soil erosion may be observed, which can lead to numerous environmental problems, such as water contamination. Increasing the primary productivity through the cultivation of biofuel crops, which require little nutrients, may decrease soil erosion and the problems associated with it. Rapeseed, for example, is a fast-growing crop which aids soil nutrients recovery and the abundant flowers are said to be beneficial for bees.

The social benefits of biofuels of biofuels in Brazil are also suggested, such as extra income generation and the decreased reliance on certain crops for income generation through crop diversification, which may increase economic certainty for farmers. The planting of Jatropha could potentially be especially beneficial, as it can be grown on the borders of agricultural lands as a hedge, meaning that it would not be putting pressure on food production. However, at the same time the benefit of this has also been questioned by the authors, as marginal lands may often have a very low productivity, while the limited scientific knowledge on the cultivation of the plant even presents potential socio-environmental dangers. Rodrigues et al. (2007) therefore come to a similar conclusion to Claire Melamed of Action Aid in the video from my last post, which is that it may be too early to start using biofuels, as too little is known about their impacts at the moment.

In conclusion, biofuels can have positive socio-environmental effects. So what are the negative socio-environmental effects of biofuels, are they more significant than the positive ones and can they be avoided?