Biofuels - CO2 emissions may increase

One of the key planks in reducing both CO2 emissions and reliance on traditional fossil fuels for energy use has been the development of the biofuel industry as a substitute but how effective is this alternative in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ? The European Union has adopted an ambitious target of reducing GHG emissions by 20 % by 2020 including replacement of 10 % of transport fuel with biofuels. However the Institute for European Environment Policy has estimated that 4.1 to 6.9 million hectares of land must be cleared to meet these target which would correspondingly lead to an 80 % to 169 % increase in carbon emissions during the 2011 to 2020 period (than if conventional fossil fuels were retained). The various energy options to replace current fossil fuel consumption are continuously appearing to have greater pitfalls than first thought. The food famine of a few years ago in parts of the World was partly attributable to the conversion of previous food crop land to biofuel crops mainly in South America and served as one example of the complex challenges of reorienting the world to a new reality.