Sine Qua Nons of sustainable biofuels: Distilling implications of under-performance for national biofuel programs

Abstract

Biofuels have been promoted worldwide under the assumption that they can support several strategic policy goals, while mitigating associated risks. Drawing on published evidence on performance, contributing papers to this Special Section question assumptions commonly attributed to biofuels: their carbon neutrality, their positive effect on rural livelihoods, and policymakers' ability to effectively govern for sustainability. This paper takes these findings as its starting point and asks, "What next?" for countries wishing to advance biofuels as one option for the necessary divestment from fossil fuels. Deriving recommendations for national biofuel programmes from past performance is no easy task. Context, complexity, power dynamics and scaling pose significant challenges to achieving policy aims. We are nevertheless able to distil a set of sine qua nons (indispensables) for sustainable biofuel governance from the evidence and change management literatures. They are put forward not as recipes for success, but minimum conditions and "best bet" approaches requiring testing, deliberation, and refinement. Perhaps the most fundamental sine qua non is to pursue options that downscale global demand-as current levels of global energy consumption, if only in the transport sector, cannot be met by biomass-derived agrofuels in a way that meets social and environmental sustainability goals.

Plant Biosystems Design Research Roadmap 1.0

“…Because energy density is a key consideration for aviation fuels, drop-in fuels are more promising than bioethanol [ 295 ]. Current bioethanol production suffers from a number of problems such as relatively small lifecycle reductions in greenhouse gas emissions [ 296 ] and a competition with food production that raises the price of staple foodstuffs [ 297 , 298 ]. In order to overcome these drawbacks, bioenergy crops should be engineered to grow with fewer inputs, on marginal land, or with valuable coproducts such as food, medicine, or industrial chemicals [ 299 ].…”

The Contributions of Biomass Supply for Bioenergy in the Post-COVID-19 Recovery

“…Fuel supply distinguishes bioenergy from fuel-less renewable energy sources where the supply allows for more opportunities for interactions with sustainability aspects along the biomass supply chain and not only at the end-use as a renewable energy source [19]. Biomass supply, whether it is used for bioenergy or the broader bioeconomy, has the potential to help drive economic growth, jobs and resilience of an economy, particularly if the cross-sectoral framework is set to maximize the desired and discourage the unintended behavior [20,21].…”

Social Aspects in the Assessment of Biobased Value Chains

“…First-generation biofuels have been associated with an increase in the price of agricultural commodities [10,11] and with working conditions that do not comply with the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions [8] and land rights issues [12]. Even their role in rural development has been questioned [13].…”