Costly biofuel support offers few benefits-OECD

Public support for biofuels is costly and has little impact in cutting greenhouse gas emissions so governments would do better promoting lower energy consumption to fight climate change, the OECD said on Wednesday.

Governments should also boost the so-called second generation biofuels that do not use food crops, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a report.
The study comes as the latest blow to biofuels, made from grains, oilseeds and sugar, which were once hailed for providing a clean alternative to fossil fuels but are now blamed for a surge in food prices.

Many European Union countries including Britain, Italy or France recently for a review of the EU’s ambitious and sometimes confusing blending targets — notably that 10 percent road transport fuel be derived from renewable sources by 2020.

Governments are are increasingly doubtful about whether biofuels were as “green” as they claim to be when taking account of the total energy needed to produce them and the environmental impact of intensive farming and increased land use.

The OECD said that if Brazil’s ethanol produced from sugar cane cuts greenhouse gas emissions by around 80 percent, biofuels from other feedstocks in the United States, the EU or Canada tend to have a far lower environmental benefit.

Guardian