The Price of Energy Consumption - The Renaissance of Renewable Energy - page 210

Bioenergy may lead to greater crop diversity and income opportunities for farmers
in wealthier countries, but in many poorer countries where land ownership is more
concentrated, it may also cause social problems. According to the World Bank ( 2008 ) ,
the cultivation of energy crops in developing countries may add to the problems already
caused by the cultivation of cash crops such as cotton and coffee; poor farmers become
more dependent on markets that are beyond their control. In such a scenario farmers sell
energy crops at an instable price in order to purchase food, also at instable prices. It is often
harder to survive on the lowest rung of a cash economy than from subsistence agriculture.
Restricted access to land, changing employment trends and the rising cost of food, which
is no longer produced directly by the farmer, can create a worse condition than the original
one based on traditional subsistence agriculture.
When, in 2009, the European Union made a commitment to meet 10 per cent of its
transport energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, it effectively issued a purchase
order for millions of tons of food crops. While the Renewables Directive called for
biodiesel to be produced within the EU from vegetable oils, bioethanol production would
be mostly imported from Brazil, where the associated land impacts would also be felt
(Al Riffai 2010 ) . By the end of 2012, biofuels had fallen somewhat out of favour, having
been blamed for the global food crises of 2008-2009. In response, the European Union
modified its Renewables Directive, providing stimulus funding for the development of
second-generation biofuels (made from crop residues rather than food commodities), and
limited the use of food-based biofuels from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. The EU
Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard explained the change of course: “We
are of course not closing down first generation biofuels, but we are sending a clear signal
that future increases in biofuels must come from advanced biofuels. Everything else will
be unsustainable” (EU press release 2012 ). This change of course on biofuels suggests that
a consensus on the extent of the impacts of bioenergy is unlikely to be achieved in the near
future.
The expansion of energy crops can also have positive environmental impacts. The
air pollution from the combustion of biofuels is considerably lower than from coal or
petroleum. Therefore, using biofuels to replace fossil fuels can mitigate climate change,
which is likely to be a major driver of habitat loss. Bioenergy production consumes
more water than oil production does, yet its impact on water resources is not solely