Is “food versus fuel” legacy holding back biofuel progress?

Biofuels were once seen as the renewable solution to our transport needs, with the greenhouse gases being pumped out of car exhausts being absorbed again by plants to make yet more fuel. However, many have questioned whether we have enough land to feed ourselves and to sustainably produce biofuels.

An area the size of the Netherlands

A report by The Institute for European Environmental Policy suggests that by 2020 more than 4.1 million hectares of uncultivated land may have to be cleared to grow the crops needed to meet our biofuel targets and feed the EU. This is an area the size of the Netherlands.

Even though this might sound huge, in context, it remains relatively small. It is just 0.1 per cent of the world's cropland, or an area less than a quarter the size of the world's cotton plantations and roughly equivalent to the amount of land we use to produce tobacco. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation have shown that there is potentially over 1,600 million hectares of unused land "available" for farming worldwide.

Research tells us that conventional biofuels, like ethanol made from wheat, can and do result in greenhouse gas (GHG) savings. In fact, conventional biofuels used in the UK last year reduced GHG emissions by 55 per cent compared to petrol and diesel. However, we must push for the development of more sustainable biofuels, which are likely to prevent even more emissions being released into the atmosphere and will reduce the pressure on land needed for food.