The FAO projected that fuel derived from agricultural produce and waste – including sawdust from the timber industry – had the capacity to meet up to 25% of the world’s energy requirements by 2026, representing an important opportunity for rural economies that have been hit hard by the falling price of some commodities – especially sugar.
“Oil at more than 70 dollars a barrel makes bioenergy potentially more competitive,” the FAO’s Sustainable Development Department assistant director-general Alexander Müller said.
“Also, in the last decade global environmental concerns and energy consumption patterns have built up pressure to introduce more renewable energy into national energy plans and to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.”
The FAO pointed out the success of the biofuels industry in Brazil, which has generated its own fuel economy over the last 30 years, generating revenues for more than 1.5 million sugar farmers alone, although other feedstocks include soya, oil-palm, sugar beet and rapeseed.
However, the FAO expressed concerns that once the European market reaches a similar demand intensity as Brazil, the impact on rural economies could create unmanageable competition for food and fuel crops, with the potential to squeeze out small producers and resulting in flow-on negative impacts for communities and the environment.
FAO senior energy coordinator Gustavo Best said policies needed to be put in place soon to protect the interests of producers and the wider community.
“Farmers, particularly in tropical areas, are seeing new opportunities for increasing production and raising their incomes,” Best said.
“But we also need to be careful. We need to plan. Competition for land between food and energy production needs to be converted to positive common benefits.”
Best said there was a concern that the demand for biofuel feedstocks could replace traditional agribusinesses with large-scale intensive cash-crops creating monoculture environments operated by large businesses.
The FAO said no comprehensive attempt has yet been made to address the complex technical, policy and institutional problems involved.
In order to fill this gap, the FAO has set up an International Bioenergy Platform, which it intends to officially present at the United Nations in New York on May 9.
The FAO said the IBEP will provide expertise and advice for governments and private operators to formulate bioenergy policies and strategies, providing regionally specific data to assist in the development of tools to quantify bioenergy resources and the implications for sustainable development on a country-by-country basis.
“The aim is to help us grow both enough fuel and enough food, and make sure that everyone benefits in the process,” Müller said.
