Environmental Impacts of Biofuels
Some intensive modern farm methods used for food production
have a range of negative effects on the environment, such as soil erosion,
water shortage, pollution from pesticides and probems with over use of fertilizers
(including eutrophication). Eutrophication, the decrease in the biodiversity
of an ecosystem as the result of release of chemical nutrients (typically
compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorous), is only one threat to
biodiversity, which may also be impacted by the replacement of a natural
ecosystem by monocultures, whether annual fields of rapeseed, sugarbeet or
cereals, or large areas of coppice, energy crops or short rotation forest.
A number of projects are re-assessing the availability and environmental impact of biofuel feedstocks, while the focus of biofuels R&D&D in Europe is on second generation technologies that use wastes, agricultural residues, forest biomass or energy crops, which can be grown on marginal land, with limited requirements for fertiliser and other inputs.
Water Resources
"The avilability of freshwater resources is an increasingly important in many parts of the world. A growing population and changing dietary trends mean a steeply rising water demand. Under the impact of climate change the population at risk of water stress could increase substantially by the end of the century. In this context, water demand for bioenergy production might place an additional burden on water availability worldwide and induce increased competition over water resources in an increasing number of regions. However, bioenergy demand also leads to new opportunities to develop strategies to adapt to climate change in agriculture: a number of crops that are suitable for bioenergy production are drought tolerant and relatively water efficient and by adopting such crops farmers may better cope with a change in precipitation patterns and increased rates of evapotranspiration1 (ET) due to higher temperature." [Source: Water demand for global bioenergy production: trends, risks and opportunities; Göran Berndes, WBGU].
In November 2009 the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform WssTP launched a consultation on the review of the WssTP Strategic Research Agenda, (727 Kb PDF), which covers among other topics the use of water by agriculture and industry.
Further Reports on environmental impact of biofuels
Sustainability
Standards for Bioenergy (1.5 Mb PDF) – Uwe R. Fritsche, Katja
Hünecke,
Andreas Hermann, Falk Schulze and Kirsten Wiegmann with contributions from
Michel Adolphe, Öko-Institut e.V., Darmstadt. Published by WWF
Germany, Frankfurt am Main, November 2006.
Please note that the material in this report is copyright of WWF Germany, Frankfurt am Main and that any reproduction in full or in part of this publication must mention the title and credit the copyright holder.