1 May 2007
Lagos — The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has called for wider acceptance and greater use of bio-fuels world-wide, as a fuel for transport and for power generation; claiming that bio-fuels, fuels derived from bio-mass, offer a promising supplement.
The UN group claimed that due to increase and fluctuations in global oil prices and growing concern about global warming, policy makers and the public are more interested in finding alternatives to petrol than at any time since the mid-1970s.
Bio-fuels production is based on agricultural production and therefore many countries can produce them easily. Moreover, there are several additional benefits: reduction of oil import bills, better energy security and diversification of energy sources, diversification of agricultural output, accelerated development of rural areas, increased rural employment, and the possibility to raise export earnings.
However, the group in a statement claimed that not all agricultural countries are best suited to produce bio-fuels. The economic viability of bio-fuels production depends on crop yields and the efficiency of the processing, it said.
Producing ethanol from sugarcane is far more efficient than producing it from corn, both from the economic point of view and for achieving the greatest reduction of GHG emissions. The reason is that there is much more solar energy available for the plants in the tropics than in a temperate climate. As stated by Mr. Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency "the corn and wheat methods to produce ethanol are the worst imaginable, because they are only commercially viable with permanent subsidies and trade barriers, and their production requires a large amount of fossil fuels inputs, which is not the case for ethanol produced from sugar cane and other tropical bio-fuels."
While bio-fuels production using present processes in developed countries is not economically viable without subsidies and barriers to imports, bio-fuels production in developing countries (or more specifically in tropical countries) offers interesting economic opportunities.
However, there are also some concerns. These relate mainly to environmental issues such as deforestation (clearing virgin forest may be uneconomic and also results in the release of large amounts of carbon), worsening of water scarcity and loss of bio-diversity. It is also argued that higher food prices resulting from competition over land between food and energy crops may raise issues of food security.
Proper management of land can limit the extension of agricultural land and preserve primary forests. It should be mentioned that there is much more land available for bio-fuels production in developing countries, particularly Africa, than in developed countries.
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