Blog Posts: biofuels

The smoke from one Nairobi school’s firewood use was so bad that two cooks quit. A new clean energy source burns cleaner without destroying forests.

Firewood is cutting into Kenya's forests. Entrepreneurs are responding with a new "biomass briquette" industry that turns wastes into fuel.

WRI responds to a critique of its working paper, Avoiding Bioenergy Competition for Food Crops and Land. The paper articulates reasons the world should avoid dedicating land to bioenergy production if it is to sustainably feed the global population in 2050.

Biofuels and bioenergy take up finite land resources at the cost of food production and carbon storage and doesn’t guarantee carbon emissions cuts.

Just a couple weeks ago, Iowa State University (ISU) withdrew from advising the Iowa-based firm AgriSol Energy on its planned land deal in Tanzania. AgriSol Energy is seeking to acquire 320,000 hectares in Rukwa Region for large-scale food and biofuel production. ISU’s role had been to ensure that the for-profit venture be socially responsible and benefit local communities. However, the development of AgriSol’s large-scale farm requires the eviction of 162,000 local farmers – hardly a benefit to the local communities.

With wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and other dramatic weather events making front page news around the world, many people are asking questions about the signs and impacts of a changing climate. Climate Science is the World Resources Institute’s periodic review of the state of play of the science of climate change. With summaries and explanations of recent peer-reviewed research from a host of scientific journals, Climate Science is a window into what scientists are discovering about how climate change affects the living things and complex systems of our planet.

As biofuel production ramps up, counting all the associated greenhouse gas impacts is critical to good energy and climate policy.

Trends to Watch is WRI's annual forecast of emerging issues that will have major impacts on environmental coverage in 2008. On climate change: what will happen between COP-13 in Bali, and COP-14 in Poznan? What role will China play? Will we see new legislation and regulations from Congress or the EPA? Where will biofuels and technology go? Where will the water come from? WRI President Jonathan Lash makes his predictions at the National Press Club.

Dr. Fred Stolle is the Program Manager for Forest Landscapes in Southeast Asia, and the Regional Manager for the Indonesia Global Forest Watch project. His interview on biofuels consumption aired the week of April 27th, 2007 on National Public Radio's Living on Earth.