Biofuels and Sustainable Development: Environmental Perspectives

There is growing interest in biofuels in many developing countries as a means of modernizing biomass use and providing greater access to clean liquid fuels while helping to address energy costs, energy security and global warming concerns associated with petroleum fuels. At a time when the focus is on global warming, CO2 emission, secure energy supply, and less consumption of fossil-based fuels, the use of renewable energy resources is essential. Biofuel has gained importance in the recent past year as a renewable fuel. The environmental issues concerned with the exhaust gases emission by the usage of fossil fuels also encourage the usage of biofuels which have proved to be eco-friendly far more than fossil fuels. Links between biofuels and sustainable development are varied and complex. On the one hand, biofuels may improve energy security, economic gains, rural development, elevate energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to standard fuels. On the other hand, production of energy crops could result in the expansion of the agricultural frontier, deforestation, monocropping, water pollution, food security problems, poor labour conditions and unfair distribution of the benefits along the value chain. The positive impacts and trade-offs involved vary depending on the type of energy crop, cultivation method, conversion technology and country or region under consideration. This paper seeks to provide a preliminary identification of the main sustainable development and environmental issues involved in the debate around production and trade of biofuels.