Abstract
This chapter provides a background for consideration of the sustainability of biofuels in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Facing the twin problems of increasingly scarce and risky petroleum resources and global climate change, many nations are turning to biofuels for the transportation sector. For several decades, the world leaders in biofuels production and use have been, by far, Brazil and most recently the USA. These programs have been considered to be in the national interest, and have been subsidized by governments to varying degrees until more recently. However, the sustainability of biofuels production has come under serious challenge, including their effect on greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, deforestation, water use and pollution, food security, labor practices, among other issues. The first generation of biofuels in LAC has relied upon feedstocks that are food based, primarily sugarcane and soybeans, and conversion to non-food-based, second-generation biofuels has been extremely slow. An overview will be provided of numerous sustainability concerns, challenges, and policy responses, including nongovernmental organization governance and certification standards and schemes for biofuel and feedstock production. Given the already large export markets for US and Brazilian ethanol, and for Argentinean biodiesel, greater coordination between national biofuels sustainability programs will be essential to their successful implementation.
Keywords
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- 1.
It is difficult to know if exported oilseeds or oils from the LAC region to biofuel-producing regions such as the EU are used for biofuel production or in other sectors. Nevertheless, it is worth noting feedstock exports here because it is likely that some feedstock originating from LAC were used by EU member states to produce biofuel in recent years (MVO 2009).
- 2.
Brazil ended its direct subsidies in 1999 and, more recently, the USA removed its import tariff on Brazilian ethanol.
- 3.
Between January and December 2009, Brazilian sugar prices, which serve as a benchmark for the world market, doubled. Prices declined by mid-2010, but they underwent a similar increase by the end of the year and remained high through the first quarter of 2011 (CEPEA 2012).
- 4.
Data for Jatropha are for bio-kerosene production, but we include them here because the emissions are similar and this is the only peer-reviewed LCA study of Jatropha biofuel produced in the LAC region.
- 5.
The use of maize as livestock feed, indirectly human food, accounts for either the first or second largest share of the market, depending on the year (Solomon et al. 2007).
- 6.
These include the ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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Solomon, B., Bailis, R. (2014). Introduction. In: Solomon, B., Bailis, R. (eds) Sustainable Development of Biofuels in Latin America and the Caribbean. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9275-7_1
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