‘Sustainable’ biofuels in the global South

(Picture: treehugger.com)

The past decade has witnessed a rapid rise in the number of policies that encourage the production and use of liquid biofuels, and a consequent rapid expansion of biofuel markets worldwide. However research has increasingly challenged claims about the ‘green’ credentials of biofuels and called attention to adverse environmental and social impacts associated with their production. Because of new knowledge and public pressure, the governance of biofuels has evolved to place greater emphasis on ‘sustainability’. New actors and arrangements have also emerged in the biofuel governance arena, such as multi-stakeholder ‘roundtables’ as well as public policy measures that are implemented through private certification schemes.

The articles in this special issue of Geoforum, originally presented at a conference partly funded by the CBS Sustainability Platform in late 2012, examine the features of ‘sustainable’ biofuels in the global South. They demonstrate that a substantial gap remains between the ideal of sustainable biofuels and current practices of biofuel production and processing in the global South. Traditional and experimentalist forms of governance both show considerable shortcomings – in their inclusiveness, scope, enforcement or all three – that have limited their ability to consistently improve social and environmental outcomes to date. While biofuel policies have increasingly taken up the language of social inclusion, livelihood benefits and environmental protection, the studies in this collection suggest that, based on current experience, fostering more sustainable practices in the biofuel industry remains a substantial challenge.  
 

THEMED ISSUE: SUSTAINABLE BIOFUELS AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH, Geoforum, Vol. 54 (2014), edited by Carol Hunsberger and Stefano Ponte