Fossil Fuels Better for Environment Than Biofuels

Using more biofuels could release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years according to a report which urges the world to focus on increasing fossil fuel efficiency.

In the first comprehensive study on biofuel emissions, Renton Righelato from the World Land Trust and Dominick Stracken from Leeds University in the UK discuss how carbon emissions can be avoided through restoring and protecting forests rather than by using the same land to grow and produce biofuels.

In Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests? the scientists claim that in many cases it takes 50-100 years for the emissions saved by using biofuels to offset the carbon released through clearing the forest.

"The underlying message of our paper is that biofuels are not the best strategy for reducing carbon emissions. Any EU or US policy that sets targets on biofuel use therefore has the potential to result in increased rather than decreased carbon emissions", Dominick Stracken told offshore-technology.com.

For the longer term, carbon free transport fuel technologies are needed to replace fossil hydrocarbons, the report concludes.

Reported by Ozge Ibrahim