Biofuels and food security interactions

Institutions, innovation and consequences of InactionBiofuels and food security interactions

Carlo Hamelinck

2014 11 20

© ECOFYS | | Biofuels and food security interactions

Recap: Why bioenergy?

> Renewable and sustainable– Regrows– Reduces greenhouse gas emissions– (After initial carbon investment and payback period)

> Versatile– Can provide base and peak load electricity– Complementary to other renewable energy sources– Many different energy products: power, heat, fuels– Paves the road to biobased materials & chemicals– Only near term option for heavy transport, shipping, aviation

> Cost effective– Competitive with other renewable energy sources and with fossil– Works with existing infrastructure– Connects to existing business

> Secures energy supply– Many types of feedstock, including waste streams– Locally and globally available, sometimes abundant– Saves on oil import costs, diverts from oil states

> Rural development– Employment opportunities along supply chain– Synergy with other agriculture

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Sustainable worldcannot do without bioenergy

> World bioenergy potential ranges from <50 to >1000 EJ/yr in various studies (IPCC)

> Question should NOT be: how much can we get sustainable?

> RATHER: How can we sustainably produce as much as possible?

2014 11 20 Biofuels and food security interactions

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Responsible project development

> Addax Bioenergy started cane ethanol production May 2014

– 10,000 hectares + outgrowers

– 85 million litres ethanol for international market

– 15 MW electricity for national grid (20% of Sierra Leone’s demand)

– Workforce 2,750 people

> Governance with international standards

– Certified for Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials

– Clean Development Mechanism under UNFCCC

– Complies with sustainable development guidelines of the AfDB and IFC

> Additional Farmer Development Programme (FDP):

– 2400 hectares of rice fields for 53 communities

– Addax Bioenergy has trained >2400 local farmers (65% women)

Biofuels and food security interactions

[Photo’s: courtesy of Sandström / Addax]

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Tanzania: elements of biofuels policy framework

> Governance :

– Include stakeholders in national Biofuels Technical Advisory Board

– Improved attention to land acquisition process

– Improved attention to Environmental Impact Assessment

– Monitor projects, learn and adapt

– Capacity building all levels – especially communities

> Careful development

– Not too fast, not too large (20 kha), not too long

– First careful selection viable projects – then intensive guidance

> Improve agricultural system

– Access to know-how (schools, extension workers)

● Obligatory 30% smallholder inclusion

– Access to means (machinery, agro chemicals)

– Access to markets (logistics, co-operatives, auctions)

Biofuels and food security interactions

[Photo’s by Hamelinck]

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© ECOFYS | |

Requirements to biofuels in western marketsReduce and avoid Indirect Land Use Change

• Use of fallow or degraded lands

• Yield increase above trendline

• Use of residues with limited current uses

• Sustainable intensification of land use

• Aquatic biomass production

• Methodology for cost-effective certification

• Of low/no ILUC biofuels

• For use in policy and certification schemes

• Tested (Brazil, Indonesia, Mozambique, S-Africa)

• Currently tested in the European Union

• Developed by WWF, Ecofys, RSB

Low ILUC approachesLow Indirect Impact Biofuels (LIIB) is

Biofuels and food security interactions

IndonesiaOil palm on unused land

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BrazilIntegrate cane with cattle farming

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