Biofuels, blessing or curse?

by Thijs Westerbeek*

03-12-2007

Biofuels are controversial. Proponents point to their climate-neutral
character (the growing plants have already absorbed the carbon dioxide
released during burning), but opponents point out that the production
of biofuels carries enormous societal costs and causes ecological
damage. Let's weigh the pros and cons.

Rapeseed
Yellow, beautiful and clean:
Rapeseed in full bloom in Britain
From some perspectives, biofuels are a disaster. Tropical rainforests
are chopped down to make way for palm oil plantations, farmers in poor
countries are driven off their land and monoculture leads to the
destruction of biodiversity. However, the market for biofuels is
growing explosively.

Indonesia
According to Sawit Watch, an Indonesian non-governmental organisation
that studies issues surrounding palm oil plantations, between 1999 to
2004, some 400,000 hectors of palm oil plantations were planted
annually in Indonesia alone.

Some of the plantations were opened in protected areas such as Tanjung
Puting National Park and the Danau Sentarum Nature Reserve in Kalimantan.

Norman Jiwan of Sawit Watch says biodiversity is being seriously
damaged by monoculture palm oil plantations. He says that the growing
world consumption of palm oil must be halted or any attempt to prevent
deforestation is doomed to failure.

Non-food biofuels
There are alternatives for palm oil and other biofuels made from
edible plants and it is unnecessary to use valuable arable land to
grow them. It is possible to extract oil from plants that grow in
areas that are unsuitable for growing crops.

The Netherlands has been conducting a pilot project for sustainable
bio-diesel for some time. The first clean 'petrol' station opened
recently in Amsterdam's North district. You can fill up your car with
PPO, or pure plant oil, made from rape or jatropha seeds. Cars run on
PPO emit less soot and sulphur dioxide. Using PPO also reduces
carbon-dioxide emissions. Paulien Westendorp director of the
Opgwekt.nu Foundation says:

"At the moment, you can only fill up with rape oil but starting in
2008, people will be able to fill their cars with jatropha oil. She
also favours jatropha oil as the proceeds go to small farmers."

Jatropha seeds
Jatropha seeds
Ms Westendorp says that biofuels are not necessarily bad but that the
situation in countries such as Indonesia and South America cannot be
allowed to continue. Both the environment and local people are
suffering in order to produce biofuels for rich western countries.

Manure
There is another solution: instead of bio-oil you choose biogas. Test
farm Nij Bosma Zahte near Leeuwarden is making bio gas from cow manure.

A mixture of corn, sunflowers and other waste products from the food
industry form the basis for the fermentation process that produces
biogas. It is excellent for producing electricity and can heat entire
neighbourhoods. Biogas delivers a 50 percent reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions and means that no fossil fuels are being burned.

Diego Cardona of Friends of the Earth International says that other
methods of producing sustainable energy have not been fully developed
and deserve a chance.
"All eyes are on biofuels but we are forgetting other sustainable and
local sources of energy such as sun, wind and water. Neither wind or
sun energy have had the necessary impulse or investigation to fully
develop their potential, probably because agribusinesses have been
protecting their interests. Of course there are alternatives for
fossil fuels but you always have to take people in poor regions into
account and make sure that you look at the entire picture".

* RNW Translation (jc)



Tags: bio-oil, biofuels, carbon dioxide, climate change, fossil fuels,
Friends of the Earth, jatropha seed, rapeseed, solar energy,
sustainable energy

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/development/071203-biofuels-mc