Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality

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 benefits”. 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 en- ergy sector. Internationally agreed sustainability principles and criteria; iden- tification, designation and monitoring of “no go areas” with regard to carbon storage and biodiversity potentials; social safeguards that ensure that vulner- able 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 benefits of bioenergy.

Biofuel versus fossil fuel

In blue: main concerns related to fossil fuels

In green: virtuous initial equation in favour of biofuels

In red: main concerns related to biofuels

Threats

Biofuels

Fossil fuels Limited resource

Crops are renewables

FAMINE, MALNUTRITION and other HEALTH CONCERNS

CLIMATE CHANGE

Fossil fuel shortage

Biodiversity damage

Agricultural prices up

Land use competition with food production

Deforestation Land use change

Agricultural production* Global process:

Global process: Prospecting and extracting

Monoculture

Massive need for agricultural land

Water and soil pollution

Transport

Production and use of fertilizers Use of farm machinery Industrial transformation process Distribution

Greenhouse gas emission

Refining

Distribution

Fossil fuel burning (petrol and diesel use)

Final use (road transport)

Final use (road transport)

Petrol and diesel substitution

No Greenhouse gas emission

Source: Emmanuelle Bournay, Atlas Environnement du Monde Diplomatique 2007.

* Under the high productivity farming conditions that are prevailing today.