Biofuels have long been held up as a viable high-tech climate solution, but in practice they’ve often not lived up to their promise, causing environmental harm and in some cases being more carbon-intensive than fossil fuels.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is opening the Amazon and Pantanal wetland biomes to sugarcane production, risking deforestation and intensified carbon emissions.
In a surprise move even to the sugarcane industry, the president has removed restrictions on Amazon sugarcane production; land speculators could benefit.
Last week, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the largest-ever recorded low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. At 22,730 square kilometers (8,776 square miles)…
yben Minyizeya’s homestead in Chisumbanje in eastern Zimbabwe resembles a dumpsite for disused tractors and other agricultural equipment. The broken and rusty machinery reminds him of the good old farming…
A cornfield stretches as far as the eye can see. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Corn and soybean cultivation soared in the late 2000s, as U.S. agribusiness rushed to respond…
Sugar cane in the tropics. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. If Brazil wants to respect its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions it should target low productivity cattle pasture rather…
Trends in commodity certification markets Market share for certified commodities. All figures courtesy of IISD's report The volume of commodities produced under various social and environmental certification standards jumped 41…
In coming weeks Brazil will vote on a bill that would lift a ban on sugar cane mills across a large extent of the Amazon region, sparking fears that ethanol…
Intensification of Brazil's sugarcane industry in response to rising demand for sugar-based ethanol could have impacts on the regional climate reports a new study by researchers from Arizona State University,…
The palm oil industry has been lobbying Europe to allow palm oil-based biofuels to qualify as a low carbon fuel. But environmentalists say substantial amounts of palm oil production occurs…
Greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil-based biodiesel are the highest among major biofuels when the effects of deforestation and peatlands degradation are considered, according to calculations by the European Commission.…
Oil palm plantations and rainforest in Malaysia The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled on Friday that palm oil-based biofuels will not meet the renewable fuels standard due to carbon…
A typical scenario in the Atlantic Forest at the Northeastern Biodiversity Corridor, where forest remants are surrounded by sugarcane plantations. Most of the remaining forest fragments are, on average, smaller…
Flooding in the Midwest is likely to cause the largest-ever dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA-supported scientists from three universities…
Converting cattle pasture and cropland in Brazil to sugar cane helps cool local climate reports research published in Nature Climate Change. Scientists with the Carnegie Institutions’s Department of Global Ecology…
Biofuels could meet up to half the world's current fuel consumption without affecting food production or forests, argues a study published last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.…
An attempt by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) to drastically reduce subsidies for domestic ethanol production and cut the tariff on imported ethanol was ultimately unsuccessful, reports Reuters. The proposal would…
Only 4 percent of biofuel imported for use in the UK — and 20 percent of biofuel used overall — meets the environmental sustainability standard set by the Renewable Transport…
During the fiscal years of 2002-2008 the United States handed out subsidies to fossil fuel industries to a tune of 72 billion dollars, while renewable energy subsidies, during the same…
Brazil will restrict sugarcane plantations for ethanol production from the Amazon, the Pantanal, and other ecologically-sensitive areas under a plan announced Thursday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration,…
In a Perspectives piece in Science, John R. Regalbuto argues that the world will soon see a revolution in biofuels, but not those made from corn. Instead Regalbuto, program director…
Sustainable biofuels can be a reality but only in combination with reductions in fuel demand and increased productivity on existing agricultural lands, argue researchers writing in the journal Science. Five…
Former US president Bill Clinton spoke out against rainforest destruction on Monday in Brazil. Headlining the Ethanol Summit 2009 in Sao Paulo, Clinton spoke of the positive role ethanol could…
Yesterday the Obama Administration established a Biofuels Interagency Working Group to oversee implementation of new rules and research regarding biofuels. On the group’s first day they would do well to…
More than half of cropland expansion between 1980 and 2000 occurred at the expense of natural forests, while another 30 percent of occurred in disturbed forests, reported a Stanford University…
Prairie grass ethanol will kill fewer people and foul the environment less than corn ethanol
Corn expansion is hurting ladybugs Corn expansion is hurting ladybugs mongabay.com December 15, 2008
Scientists should not compare biodiversity of rainforests with oil palm plantations says palm oil council chief Biodiversity of rainforests should not be compared with oil palm plantations says palm oil…