Worldwatch State of the World 2006
Chapter 4: Cultivating Renewable Alternatives to Oil
by Suzanne C. Hunt and Janet L. Sawin with Peter Stair
Fueled by a powerful combination of advancing technologies, rising environmental concerns, farmer support, and soaring oil prices, biofuels are poised to become an import part of the world’s energy future. Biofuels are made from plant matter—from sugarcane, for instance, or soybeans—and other renewable feedstocks. The most widely used transport biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel, with ethanol currently accounting for more than 90 percent of global biofuel production. (See Figures 4-1 and 4-2, pp. 62-63.)
The combustion of biofuels results in far lower emissions of several pollutants, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter, than burning petroleum fuels would. Also, unlike fossil fuels—which contain carbon stored for millennia beneath Earth’s surface and which release enormous amounts of greenhouse gases when burned—biofuels have the potential to be “carbon-neutral” over their life cycles. Furthermore, large-scale and widespread demand for biofuels could offer new markets for farm and forest products as well as new jobs and industries in rural areas.
The wide range of potential benefits from the large-scale use of biofuels is creating unusual coalitions of political support among groups often at odds: farmers who are seeking new markets, oil executives who want to remain in the energy business for the long term, environmentalists opposed to the polluting impacts of fossil fuels, and pacifists and military hawks who fear that dependence on unreliable sources of oil is undermining national security. Policymakers have a significant role to play in promoting innovative approaches to ensure that the benefits of a biobased economy are maximized while the risks are minimized. (See Table 4-3, p. 75.)
Special Focus, China & India
Box 4-1: China’s Ambition to Farm Energy, p. 66
Box 4-2: Will Ethanol and Biodiesel Bring Prosperity to More of India?, p. 67
Suzanne Hunt is Project Manager for the Worldwatch Institute’s Biofuels Program. Janet Sawin is a Senior Researcher and the Director of the Energy and Climate Change Program at the Institute. Peter Stair is a Research Assistant at the Institute.
