Once the rockets are up, who should care where they come down? The problem of responsibility ascription for the negative consequences of biofuel innovations

Abstract

Responsible Innovation (RI) is often heralded in EU policy circles as a means to achieve ethically acceptable, sustainable innovations. Yet, conceptual questions on the specific notion of ‘responsibility’ and to what extent an innovation can be ‘responsible’ are only partly addressed. In this chapter the question of responsibility for the indirect negative effects of biofuel innovations is explored. While initially hailed as one of the much needed solutions in the global struggle against climate change, the use of biofuels has become increasingly criticised. It is argued that the increased production of biofuels has put smallholder farmers out of business, has given rise to increased food prices, sparking food riots in several countries, while also contributing to further environmental degradation as the demand for new biofuels requires the development of new croplands at the cost of forests and peat lands. In the current market-based system it is customary to disburden researchers and business companies from any responsibility for the more remote consequences of their actions. When harmful consequences are brought about through the mediation of (perhaps a long series of) market transactions, they are often considered inevitable and excusable and not an appropriate occasion for invoking anybody’s responsibility. But how broad is the scope of responsibility when it comes to the above mentioned social and ecological problems? By invoking the sacred duty to “innovate”, the business company could perhaps be exculpated. In our age, innovation is often so much celebrated that many negative impacts are duly accepted as the inevitable price of progress. By approaching responsibility from a perspective that takes into account the economic and ecological interconnectedness of the world, we show how the debate on Responsible Innovation in biofuels becomes tied in with global debates on economic justice and bioscarcity. In conclusion we argue that if we—assuming this interconnectedness—take the current requirements of “Responsible” Innovation seriously, it would result in a demanding practice that calls for a substantial departure from business as usual, which prompts the question to what extent it is reasonable to incorporate what are actually demands for global justice in programs for innovation.

Explaining bioenergy: representations of jatropha in Kenya before and after disappointing results

“…Tempels and Belt (2016) describe how difficult it is to assign responsibility for the indirect consequences of biofuel production, cataloguing for example how US biofuel industry groups tried to sidestep responsibility for indirect land use change by questioning the techniques used to measure it. Research in Kenya and elsewhere suggests that NGOs, local officials, knowledge brokers, researchers and entrepreneurs have benefited most from experiments with jatropha, while farmers and farm workers have carried the bulk of the risks and most often ended up with little reward (German et al 2011a; Neimark 2016; Vel 2014; GTZ 2009).…”

Limits to responsible innovation

“…Can they be held responsible for the consequences of their role in the policy-making arena? Holding them responsible for these consequences seems overly demanding -but not holding them responsible might create 'responsibility gaps' where ultimately no one takes up responsibility when farmers are disadvantaged by policy (Tempels and Van den Belt 2016). If such issues are not adequately theorised and addressed in the RI literature, this threatens the responsiveness and reflexivity of an RI process.…”

OSiD: opening the conceptual design of biobased processes to a context‐sensitive sustainability analysis

“…Biobased production has been promoted as an alternative to fossil‐based production to mitigate climate change 1 . However, concerns about the impacts of biobased production on sustainability have put its desirability into question 2,3 . Concerns over the sustainability of biobased products include food security impacts related to the use of food crops, land use changes in feedstock producing regions, and negative impacts on the livelihood of local communities 4–6 .…”