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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>While skepticism about many biofuels is quite well
founded, there are notable examples where biofuel systems avoid the problems
cited in that article. I'm thinking specifically about <EM>Jatropha
curcas</EM>, which is an oilseed shrub that can grow in arid climates and
degraded soils. It provides erosion control, has medicinal value, and can
be grown in areas where it will not compete with food crops. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>However, it has mostly been worked with in the
context of rural sustainable development, less so at the scale to which it would
be relevant to urban transport. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Besides, a congested city in which the cars are
running on biofuel is not much more desirable than a congested city in which the
cars are running on fossil fuel. And it could perhaps be worse, given that
different types of biodiesel can emit significantly greater quantities of
NOx.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=carlos.pardo@sutp.org href="mailto:carlos.pardo@sutp.org">Carlos F.
Pardo SUTP</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org
href="mailto:sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org">Global 'South' Sustainable
Transport</A> ; <A title=NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com">Newmobility Cafe</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 31, 2007 9:00
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sustran] Biofuels- everything
that shines is gold?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=headline><B><SPAN class=headlinetext>Scientists are taking 2nd look
at biofuels</SPAN></B> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=bylinetext>By Elisabeth Rosenthal<BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=pubdate><SPAN class=pubdatetext>Wednesday, January 31,
2007</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=bodytextdiv><SPAN class=bodytext>AMSTERDAM - </SPAN><SPAN
class=headlinetext>International Herald Tribune</SPAN><SPAN class=bodytext>
<P><B>Original source: </B><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/30/business/biofuel.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/30/business/biofuel.php</A></P>
<P>Just a few years ago, politicians and green groups in the Netherlands were
thrilled by the country's early and rapid adoption of "sustainable energy,"
achieved in part by coaxing electricity plants to use some biofuel — in
particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.</P>
<P>Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic
that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory
would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from
plants.</P>
<P>But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in
Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an
environmental nightmare.</P>
<P>Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the razing of huge
tracts of Southeast Asian rain forest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer
there. Worse still, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created
by draining and burning peat land, which sent huge amount of carbon emissions
into the atmosphere.</P>
<P>Factoring in these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world's
third-leading producer of greenhouse gases that scientists believe are
responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China,
concluded a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands
International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands.</P>
<P>"It was shocking and totally smashed all the good reasons we initially went
into palm oil," said Alex Kaat, a spokesman for Wetlands, a conservation
group.</P>
<P>Biofuels, long a cornerstone of the quest for greener energy, may sometimes
produce more harmful emissions than the fossil fuels they replace, scientific
studies are finding.</P>
<P>As a result, politicians in many countries are rethinking the billions of
dollars in subsidies that have indiscriminately supported the spread of all of
these supposedly "eco- friendly" fuels, for use in power vehicles and
factories. The 2003 European Union Biofuels Directive, which demands that all
member states aim to have 5.75 percent of transportation fueled by biofuel in
2010, is now under review.</P>
<P>"If you make biofuels properly, you will reduce greenhouse emissions," said
Peder Jensen, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. "But that
depends very much on the types of plants and how they're grown and processed.
You can end up with a 90 percent reduction compared to fossil fuels — or a 20
percent increase."</P>
<P>"Its important to take a life cycle view," he said, and not to "just see
what the effects are here in Europe."</P>
<P>In the Netherlands, the data from Indonesia have provoked soul searching,
and prompted the government to suspend palm oil subsidies. A country that was
a leader in green energy in Europe has now become a leader in the effort to
distinguish which biofuels are truly environmentally sound. The government,
environmental groups and some of the "green energy" companies in the
Netherlands are trying to develop programs to trace the origin of imported
palm oil, to certify what is produced in an eco- friendly manner.</P>
<P>Krista van Velzen, a member of Parliament, said the Netherlands should pay
compensation to Indonesia for the damage palm oil has caused. "We can't only
think, 'Does it pollute the Netherlands?'"</P>
<P>Biofuels are heavily subsidized throughout the developed world, including
the European Union and the United States, and enjoy tax breaks that are given
because they more expensive to produce than conventional fuel.</P>
<P>In the United States and Brazil most biofuel is ethanol, derived from corn
and used to power vehicles. In Europe it is mostly local rapeseed and
sunflower oil, used to make diesel fuel. But as many European countries push
for more green energy, they are increasingly importing plant oils from the
tropics, since there is simply not enough biomass at home.</P>
<P>On the surface, the environmental equation that supports biofuels is
simple: Since they are derived from plants, biofuels absorb carbon while they
are grown and release it when they are burned. In theory that neutralizes
their emissions.</P>
<P>But the industry was promoted long before there was adequate research, said
Reanne Creyghton, who runs Friends of the Earth's anti-palm oil campaign in
the Netherlands. "Palm oil was advertised as green energy, but there was no
research about whether it was really sustainable."</P>
<P>Biofuelswatch, an environmental group in Britain, now say that "biofuels
should not automatically be classed as 'renewable energy.'" It supports a
moratorium on subsidies until more research is done to define which biofuels
are truly good for the planet. Beyond that, the group suggests that all
emissions rising from the production of a biofuel be counted as emissions in
the country where the fuel is actually used, providing a clearer accounting of
environmental costs.</P>
<P>The demand for palm oil in Europe has skyrocketed in the past two decades,
first for use in food and cosmetics, and more recently for biofuels. This
versatile and low-cost oil is used in about 10 percent of supermarket
products, from chocolate to toothpaste, accounting for 21 percent of the
global market for edible oils.</P>
<P>Palm oil produces the most energy of all vegetable oils per liter when
burned. In much of Europe it is used as a substitute for diesel oil, though in
the Netherlands, with little sun for solar power and little wind for turbines,
the government has encouraged its use for electricity.</P>
<P>Supported by hundreds of millions of euros in national subsidies, the
Netherlands rapidly became the leading importer of palm oil in Europe, taking
in 1.5 million tons last year, a figure that has been nearly doubling
annually. The Dutch green energy giant Essent alone bought 200,000 tons,
before it agreed to suspend new purchases until a better system for certifying
sustainably grown palm oil could be developed. The company now has replaced
the palm oil it used with conventional sources of energy and local
biofuels.</P>
<P>But already the buoyant demand has created damage far away. "When you
drastically increase the demand for agricultural products, that puts new
pressure on the land and can have unintended consequences and hidden costs,"
Jensen, of the European Environment Agency, said.</P>
<P>Friends of the Earth estimates that 87 percent of the deforestation in
Malaysia from 1985 to 2000 was caused by new palm oil plantations. In
Indonesia, the amount of land devoted to palm oil has increased 118 percent in
the past eight years.</P>
<P>Oil needed by poor people for food was becoming too expensive for them. "We
have a problem satisfying the Netherlands' energy needs with someone else's
food resources," said Creyghton of Friends of the Earth.</P>
<P>Such concerns were causing intense misgivings about palm oil already when,
in December, scientists from Wetlands International released their bombshell
calculation about the global emissions that palm farming on peat land
caused.</P>
<P>Peat is an organic sponge that stores huge amounts of carbon, thereby
helping to balance global emissions. Peat land is 90 percent water. But when
it is drained, those stored gases are released into the atmosphere.</P>
<P>To makes matters worse, once dried, peat land is often burned to clear
ground for plantations. In recent years Indonesia has been plagued by
polluting wildfires so intense that they send thick clouds of smoke over much
of Asia.</P>
<P>The Dutch study estimated that the draining of peat land in Indonesia
releases 600 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere a year and that fires
contributed an additional 1,400 million tons annually. The total, 2000 million
tons, is equivalent to 8 percent of all global emissions caused annually by
burning fossil fuels, the researchers said.</P>
<P>"These emissions generated by peat drainage in Indonesia were not counted
before," Kaat, of Wetlands International, said. "It was a totally ignored
problem." For the moment Wetlands is backing the certification system for palm
oil imports, to make sure it is grown and processed in a sustainable
manner.</P>
<P>But some environmental groups are convinced that palm oil cannot be
produced sustainably at reasonable prices. Part of the reason palm oil is now
relatively inexpensive is because of poor environmental practices and labor
abuses, they say.</P>
<P>Still, some Dutch companies like Biox, a young company fully devoted to
producing energy from palm oil, are confident there will be a solution and are
banking on this biofuel.</P>
<P>Biox has applied to build three palm oil power plants in the Netherlands;
the first one gained approval just last week. It is currently auditing its
plantations and refineries in Indonesia for sustainability.</P>
<P>"Yes, there have been bad examples in the palm oil industry," said Arjen
Brinkman, a company official. "But it is now clear that to serve Europe's
markets for biofuel and bioenergy, you will have to prove that you produce it
sustainably — that you are producing less, not more CO2."</P></SPAN></DIV><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72"></PRE>
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