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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Can I just ask two simple questions : </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1) Does the article describe an inherent fatal flaw
of biofuels, or does it present examples of appalling bad practice?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2) On balance, when we have to use combustible
fuel, are we better to use biofuels which go through their full carbon intake
and output cycle now, or to use fossil fuels?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With best wishes, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brendan.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>_____________________________________________________________________________________<BR>From
Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd. e-mail : <A
href="mailto:etts@indigo.ie">etts@indigo.ie</A> tel :
+353.87.2530286</DIV>
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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=andrew.crane-droesch@undp.org
href="mailto:andrew.crane-droesch@undp.org">Andrew Crane-Droesch</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> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, February 01, 2007 4:32
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sustran] Re: Biofuels-
everything that shines is gold?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<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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