Sustainable Energy Supply: Production and Import of Biomass and Biogenic Fuels
Objectives
The constantly growing demand for energy on a global scale has caused two problems the production and utilization of biofuels is intended to help solve:
- The production and use of fossil energy has undoubtedly contributed towards climate change;
- Dependence on imports reduces energy supply security.
The promotion of energy generation through biogenic fuels is one way out of this dilemma. However, as the quantity of biomass necessary to achieve the climate targets cannot be made available within the EU, the utilization of today’s bioenergy technologies will hardly reduce the dependence of energy supply on imports, but at least diversify it. Nonetheless, the ecological benefit is increasingly being challenged.
The communication from the European Commission on the EU Strategy for Biofuels (2003) essentially contains three objectives:
- Increased promotion of biofuels in the EU and in developing countries,
- Preparation for the extensive use of biofuels and
- Intensification of co-operation with developing countries in the field of the sustainable production of biofuels.
The objectives for individual nations receive special emphasis.
The EU has responded to growing scepticism as regards the sustainability and energy efficiency of biofuels and has increasingly employed scientific studies further to develop its strategies or commissioned studies itself. Here, assessments of the consequences of producing and using conventional biofuels play an equally important role as the promotion of technological development in the fields of second-generation biofuels and engine design.
The strategies of EU Member States differ in terms of the production and import of biofuels. This is partly due to reasons of climate.
A comparison between Sweden and France makes the difference clear: countries like France with a high proportion of agriculture and/or agro-industry and strong lobbies with influence on state policy view the production of biofuels as an opportunity to restructure national agriculture. This is the case with France. In such countries, interest in importing biomass is much lower. Conversely, countries like Sweden with a high GDP, low significance of agriculture and a large demand for energy tend to be interested in reducing CO2 emissions and the dependence on oil imports. Sweden aims at substituting for imports, but is highly interested in them.
In Austria, biofuels currently play an insignificant role. According to its own sources, the largest Austrian oil company, the OMV, does not import directly, but buys via raw materials dealers. The OMV is biding time as regards the future. After initial enthusiasm in the agricultural sector and processing industry, interest in domestic production has declined, especially as the starting products, rape and sugar beet, exhibit little energy efficiency.
The EU sustainability criteria for biofuels were formulated in the guideline for renewable energy sources. Here, it is a question of significantly reducing greenhouse emissions. Only sustainable biofuels may be used in the EU.
The sustainability criteria for biofuels lay down that their production must be proven to have no detrimental effect on biological diversity and land use. In terms of development co-operation, the sustainability criteria are vague and the local contexts too little heeded.
The EU guidelines form the framework for sustainability criteria, but leave the concrete formulation of strategies and implementation to individual Member States. There are several reasons for this, deriving from the principle of subsidiarity:
- The strategies of individual Member States on biofuels differ for reasons of different national interests.
- Different strategies aim at reaching the EU’s 20/20/20 targets by sustainable energy supply.
- The case of the field of transport shows that industrial and technology policy has a major role to play. The car industry is an important actor stakeholder in technology development; biofuels are competing with alternative energy sources.
- Vehicle manufacturers respond to political decisions, but also influence them.
- Differing climactic conditions in Member States require the use of different propulsion systems for vehicles.
The result of the study shows that differentiation is necessary:
- The starting materials for biofuels are diverse and their sustainability not uncontested. Biogenic fuels differ substantially in production and use.
- The impact of biofuel production on emerging and developing countries are not unproblematic in ecological and also socio-economic terms.
- European policy is oriented towards reducing dependence on imports and developing pertinent technology. Medium- and long-term, the production of biofuels is only meaningful for emerging and developing countries, if they are produced for local demand.
For exporting emerging and developing countries, the orientation towards exports and increased wealth due to the higher share in world trade are linked to numerous risks, for the following reasons:
- Ecological causes:
The accelerated cultivation of energy plants might cause permanent ecological damage by virtue of the high space and irrigation requirements as well as the intensive use of pesticides. - Social causes:
The economically meaningful production of biomass necessitates large acreage. This goes hand in hand with acreage competition between food and energy plantations. This competition is exacerbated by the fact that in Africa food production is frequently intended for export and large areas of land have been sold or surrendered to foreign enterprises, mainly from China, India and the Arabic-speaking countries, with long-term lease contracts. - Economic and technical causes:
Today, great hopes are being placed on generating bioenergy from waste products (second-generation biofuels) and alternative energy sources. That reduces the dependence on imports of the EU and its Member States (and are ecologically more meaningful), but decreases the chances of the emerging countries and the developing countries on the world market.
However, Austria’s role in development co-operation is not sufficient to warrant involvement in the large-scale elaboration of national development plans. In the context of the production and import of biofuels, this implies orienting development co-operation towards collaboration with civil society and taking an active part in the discussion at the European level.