Study: Global Biopact on biofuels can bring benefits to both rich and poor nations

A global "Biofuels Biopact" between rich and poor countries can help alleviate poverty in the developing world while helping to solve the problems of global warming and energy security in the developed world, says a new study in the Society of Chemical Industry's journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, accessible at Wiley InterScience.

According to the report's author, John Mathews, professor of Strategic Management at Macquarie University, Australia, a "Biopact" - a trade agreement to guarantee market factors between the North (developed countries) and the South (developing countries) - will enable the expansion of global trade in biofuels under controlled and sustainable conditions, countering recent opinion that biofuels are necessarily unsustainable and will have a negative impact.

Biofuels are important because they span three of the greatest issues of our time -world industrial development; energy security and the transition to a bioeconomy; and global warming. Biofuels have something important to contribute as a solution in each of these three areas -without being a magic bullet or the whole of the solution in any of them.

Indeed, biofuels may be a transitory solution that will phase out after two or three decades as new electric-powered transport systems take over. But in the meantime, biofuels have the potential to bring together North and South in a new Biopact of transcendent significance, promising to allow countries of the South to lift themselves out of poverty through biofuel cultivation, processing and export; and countries of the North to solve their transport and global warming problems by opening up to biofuels produced sustainably and responsibly from the tropical South. - Professor John Mathews

According to prof Mathews, branding all biofuels from developing countries as unsustainable and blocking exports of these fuels to developed nations is disguised protectionism.

Agriculture in developing countries in the tropics can be more sustainable if it features good practice, because of lower energy inputs, lower water inputs and lower carbon footprints, adds the chair of Strategic Management, who has been tracking industrial transformations in the developing world for decades. Good practice can be assured precisely by such a trade pact.

A global Biopact could include measures to prevent clearing rainforest for biofuels production, for example. If markets in the North for responsibly produced biofuels are opened, then fuels grown irresponsibly can effectively be banned. - Professor Mathews

Opening up the markets could also allow EU countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by importing carbon-neutral biofuels grown in the tropical South. Professor Mathews lent support to the idea that carbon credits could be earned by maintaining rainforests intact.

The study suggests that 2,000 biorefineries in the South could be built over a decade with investment costing approx US$240 billion over 10 years - in contrast with US$470 billion predicted by the International Energy Agency to be invested in the conventional fossil fuel industry by 2010:
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Greater investment in biofuels could improve agricultural efficiency and increase yield of non-food crops, generating income and enabling a greater ability to purchase food and improve technology to increase agricultural production of food crops. - Professor Mathews

However, according to the author, such a win-win investment can only be undertaken if markets in the North are guaranteed. The best means of achieving such an investment-grade guarantee is through a comprehensive global trade agreement.

Picture: ethanol factory in Brazil's Sao Paulo region, where sugarcane is processed into highly efficient biofuel and green electricity.

References:
John A. Mathews, "Biofuels, climate change and industrial development: can the tropical South build 2000 biorefineries in the next decade?", Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, published online 20 Feb 2008, DOI: 10.1002/bbb.63

Eurekalert: Global Biopact on biofuels can bring benefits to both rich and poor nations - February 20, 2008.