Page 33 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

Biofuel transitions 27

On the other hand, the production of biofuels has revealed controversial
socioenvironmental issues. Several scholars (see among others, Basili and
Rossi, 2018; Gomiero, 2018; Harris et al., 2015; Mosnier et al., 2013;
Melillo et al., 2009; Searchinger et al., 2008) claim that biofuels have a lim-
ited contribution to GHG emissions reduction, and socioenvironmental
sustainability in general. These claims are grounded on the effects generated
by deforestation, loss of biodiversity, application of fertilizers for fuel crops,
and indirect land use change.
Deforestation is a critical issue in countries that are converting forests into
plantation of fuel crops, such as soybean in the Amazon and oil palm in
Southeast Asia (Fargione et al., 2008). Forest conversion into plantation
has a twofold negative impact on the environment; on the one hand,
reduced forest surfaces help capturing less carbon from the atmosphere,
and on the other hand, deforestation together with monoculture plantations
may be harmful for indigenous people, biodiversity and rare species, and soil
erosion ( Jefferson, 2018; Obidzinski et al., 2012).
Additional negative environmental impacts of biofuels production con-
cern water pollution either from nutrients, pesticides, and sediments, or
from crop lands irrigation and biofuels refining (NRC, 2011). Also, fertilizer
application, by releasing nitrous oxide, increases GHG emissions.
Key socioeconomic and environmental aspects negatively influenced by
the production of (mainly first generation) biofuels include: (i) indirect land
use change (iLUC), food crop prices, and food security (to be discussed in
Section 3.1); and (ii) equality and gender issues due to lack of access to
resources associated with increasing land pressure (to be discuss in
Section 3.2).

3.1 Sustainability issues: From food security to nonfood
resource biorefineries
The competition for land between food crops and fuel crops is one of the
main sustainability issues associated with biofuels production. The demand
for food, water, and energy is expected to increase continuously with the
world’s population growth. This coupled with a growing demand of bio-
fuels and limited agricultural land has established the controversy food vs.
fuel with potential impacts on iLUC and food security. Because of higher
and safer incomes and employment opportunities, farmers are more likely
to convert their food crop production into fuel crops. As a result, food avail-
ability (associated with food security) decreases and food prices increase
( Joshi et al., 2017; Demirbas, 2017; Luthra et al., 2015; Obidzinski
et al., 2012).