“Ambitious targets for including biofuels in the fuel mix will fail to deliver net climate benefits if the biofuels’ life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions [...] exceed those of fossil fuels”, concluded a study by Cerulogy, published by the think-tank Transport & Environment (T&E) on Thursday 9 October.
Global biofuel production emits 16% more CO2 than the fossil fuels it replaces. The land currently used for first-generation biofuels could feed 1.3 billion people, while using just 3% of that same land for solar panels would produce the same amount of energy. On average, 3,000 litres of water are needed to travel 100 km on biofuels.
With demand set to rise by at least 40% by 2030, T&E has called on world leaders meeting in Brazil for COP30 from Monday 10 to Friday 21 November (see EUROPE 13725/18) to agree to limit the expansion of a climate solution that is doing more harm than good.
To read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/iun (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)