Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels Evidence from Developing Nations

Biofuels are currently in the middle of a heated academic and public policy debate. Biofuel production has increased fivefold in the past decade and is expected to further double by 2020. Most of this expansion will happen in developing nations. This volume is the first of its kind, providing a comprehensive overview of the biofuel debate in developing countries. The chapters are written by a multidisciplinary team of experts, exposing the key drivers and impacts of biofuel production and use. The book covers impacts as diverse as air pollution, biodiversity loss, deforestation, energy security, food security, greenhouse gas emissions, land use change, rural development, water consumption and other socioeconomic issues. Its wide focus accommodates examples from countries in Africa, America and Asia. As such, this book will become an indispensable companion to academics, practitioners and policy makers who wish to know more about biofuel issues in the developing world.

Foreword Stephen Polasky; Part I. Global Overview: 1. Biofuels at the confluence of energy security, rural development and food security: a developing country perspective Per Stromberg and Alexandros Gasparatos; 2. The interrelations of future global bioenergy potentials, food demand and agricultural technology Karl-Heinz Erb, Andreas Mayer, Fridolin Krausmann, Christian Lauk, Christoph Plutzar, Julia Steinberger and Helmut Haberl; 3. Air pollution impacts of biofuels Kristina Wagstrom and Jason Hill; 4. Water for bioenergy: a global analysis Winnie P. Gerbens-Leenes, Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Theo H. van der Meer; 5. The challenges of estimating tropical deforestation due to biofuel expansion Yan Gao, Margaret Skutsch and Omar Masera; Part II. The Case of Brazil: 6. The Brazilian bioethanol and biodiesel programs: drivers, policies and impacts Alexandros Gasparatos, Matteo Borzoni and Ricardo Abramovay; 7. Power, social impacts, and certification of ethanol fuel: view from the northeast of Brazil Markku Lehtonen; 8. Implications of global ethanol expansion on Brazilian regional land use Amani Elobeid, Miguel Carriquiry and Jacinto F. Fabiosa; Part III. Asia: 9. Biofuel expansion in southeast Asia: biodiversity impacts and policy guidelines Janice S. H. Lee, John Garcia-Ulloa and Lian Pin Koh; 10. Jatropha production for biodiesel in Yunnan, China: implications for sustainability at the village level Daisuke Sano, Jane Romero and Mark Elder; Part IV. Africa: 11. Biofuels and Africa: impacts and linkages at the household-level Siwa Msangi; 12. Energy security, agro-industrial development and international trade: the case of sugarcane in southern Africa Bothwel Batidzirai and Francis X. Johnson; 13. Environmental and socio-economic considerations for jatropha growing in Southern Africa Graham P. Von Maltitz, Anne Sugrue, Mark B. Gush, Colin Everson, Gareth D. Borman and Ryan Blanchard; Part V. Synthesis: 14. Biofuels in developing countries: a synthesis Alexandros Gasparatos and Per Stromberg.

Alexandros Gasparatos is a James Martin Research Fellow at the Biodiversity Institute, Oxford University. He has published on a wide range of topics including biofuels, food security, energy security, ecosystem services, urban biodiversity and sustainability assessment. He has been involved in several major research projects during his time at Oxford University, the United Nations University (Yokohama, Japan) and the University of Dundee. Dr Gasparatos is committed to policy-relevant research and contributed to policy reports that were launched during the 10th Conference of the Parties of the Convention for Biological Diversity. He has a background in ecological economics (Ph.D., University of Dundee), environmental science (M.Sc., Imperial College, London) and chemistry (B.Sc., University of Patra).
Per Stromberg is a Visiting Research Fellow at the United Nations University (Yokohama, Japan) and is an environmental economist at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. He is a Cambridge European Trust Fellow and holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in environmental economics (University of Cambridge and University College, London, respectively) and a B.Sc. in economics (Stockholm University). He was awarded the James Claydon Prize in Economics from the University of Cambridge. Having lectured at universities in Japan and Peru, he was also responsible for the M.Sc. module on environmental economics at the United Nations University. Currently his research focuses on the economics of climate change, ecosystem services and biofuel production and he has published widely on economic development and the environment. He has been a researcher for the UN Development Programme, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the economics unit of the Delegation of the European Commission in Mexico and the International Institute for Environment and Development, and previously headed the Sustainable Development Governance uni