Another report burns bioenergy
January 29, 2015
By
Amie Silverwood
Jan. 29, 2015 - A new report brings up the subject of bioenergy competing with food for land use. It recommends policy changes to phase out forms of bioenergy that use crops or that otherwise make dedicated use of land.
“Such low conversion efficiencies explain why it takes a large amount of productive land to yield a small amount of bioenergy, and why bioenergy can so greatly increase global competition for land,” the report summary says.
Recommendations for policy changes include:
Governments should fix flaws in the accounting of the carbon dioxide consequences of bioenergy in climate treaties and in many national- and state-level laws.
Governments should phase out the varied subsidies and regulatory requirements for transportation biofuels made from crops or from sources that make dedicated use of land.
Governments should make ineligible from low-carbon fuel standards biofuels made from crops or from the dedicated use of land.
Governments should exclude bioenergy feedstocks that rely on the dedicated use of land from laws designed to encourage or require renewable energy.
Governments should maintain current limits on the share of ethanol in gasoline blends.
For more information, go to www.wri.org/publication/avoiding-bioenergy-competition-food-crops-and-land
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