Paper details

Title:

Global Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of Biofuel and Bioproduct Chains

Author(s):

Rutz, D., Jinke, M.C., van Dam, J.M.C., Janssen, R., Hiegl, W., Diaz-Chavez, R., Woods, J., Faaij, A.P.C., Smeets, E.M.W., Vos, J., Vis, M., Rettenmaier, N., Reinhardt, G., Nussbaum, R., Bottriell, K., Gozzi, A., Haye, S., da Silva Walter, A.C., Hilbert, J.A., Coto, O., Fallot, A., Sawe, E.N., Togola, I., Ouattara, O., Jaax, R.

Document(s):

Abstract:

Many countries worldwide are increasingly engaging in the promotion of biomass production for industrial uses such as biofuels and bioproducts. Biomass raw materials and biofuels offer the opportunity to replace petrochemical resources for a large variety of bioproducts (chemicals, bioplastics, etc.) and fossil fuels. Until today, mainly biofuels were supported by European policies, but support for bioproducts is still lacking behind. Thus, also the public sustainability debate concentrated on biofuels, but so far not on bioproducts. Driven by the strong public debate on sustainability aspects, biofuels are confronted with many environmental and socio-economic impacts. For instance, social impacts, which can be both positive and negative, include property rights, labour conditions, social welfare, economic wealth, poverty reduction, etc. In order to address these sustainability aspects of biomass production for industrial uses, different national and international efforts towards certification systems have been evolving, including the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, besides many efforts on environmental aspects, there is a general lack of socio-economic considerations. This gap is addressed by the EU-FP7 Global-Bio-Pact project in a comprehensive approach involving partners from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The main aim of the Global-Bio-Pact project is the improvement and harmonisation of global sustainability certification systems for biomass production, conversion systems and trade in order to prevent negative socio­economic impacts. Thereby, emphasis is placed on a detailed assessment of the socio-economic impacts of raw material production and a variety of biomass conversion chains. This paper presents an overview of the Global-Bio-Pact project as well as an introduction to socio-economic sustainability issues of biofuels and bioproducts worldwide.

Keywords:

bioproducts, socio-economic impact, sustainability, biofuels, international cooperation

Topic:

Policies and ensuring sustainability

Subtopic:

Sustainability criteria and certification issues

Event:

18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

VP5.2.10

Pages:

2205 - 2214

ISBN-13:

978-88-89407-56-1

ISBN-10:

88-89407-56-5

Paper DOI:

10.5071/18thEUBCE2010-VP5.2.10

Price:

FREE