to climate change, biodiversity, water and soil as well as labour conditions, indigenous people’s rights, land rights and food security. The “UN energy report” warns: “Unless new policies are enacted to protect threatened lands, secure socially acceptable land use, and steer bioenergy development in a
sustainable direction overall, the environmental and social damage could in some cases outweigh the benefi ts”. Governments as well as the private sector need to take coordinated action to ensure sustainable production and use of biofuels, so that they may play a useful role in the transformation of the energy sector. Internationally agreed sustainability principles and criteria; identification, designation and monitoring of “no go areas” with regard to carbon storage and biodiversity potentials; social safeguards that ensure that vulnerable people are not disadvantaged through food and energy price increases, and access to modern forms of energy are among the elements taken into account by UNEP as they are collaborating with others on the development of criteria to maximize development benefi ts of bioenergy.

In green: virtuous initial
Biofuel versus fossil fuel
In blue: main concerns
equation in favour of biofuels related to fossil fuels
In red: main concerns related to biofuels
Threats
Biofuels Fossil fuels
Crops are
FAMINE, MALNUTRITION
Limited renewables resource and other HEALTH CONCERNS
CLIMATE CHANGE
Biodiversity
Fossil fuel
Agricultural
damage shortage prices up
Land use competition with food production Deforestation
Land use change
Global process: Global process:
Monoculture
Agricultural production* Prospecting and extracting
Massive need for agricultural land Water and soil
Transport
Production and use of fertilizers pollution
Use of farm machinery
Greenhouse gas Refining emission
Industrial transformation process
Distribution Distribution
Final use Petrol and No Fossil fuel Final use
(road transport) diesel Greenhouse burning (road transport) substitution gas emission (petrol and diesel use)
Source: Emmanuelle Bournay,
* Under the high productivity farming conditions that are prevailing today. Atlas Environnement du Monde Diplomatique 2007.

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/biofuel-versus-fossil-fuel1