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Economic and land use consequences of biofuel production and policy with application of US and EU sustainability criteria

Economic and land use consequences of biofuel production and policy with application of US and EU sustainability criteria

Full Title:  Economic and land use consequences of biofuel production and policy with application of US and EU sustainability criteria
Author(s):  Krissana Treesilvattanakul, Farzad Taheripour, Wallace E. Tyner
Publisher(s):  Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
Publication Date: August 1, 2013
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

In general, national biofuel programs, in particular in US and EU, have two major components. The first component defines a timeline to achieve certain levels of biofuel production over time. The second component defines sustainability criteria. In recent years several studies have examined the land use and economic consequences of national and multi-national biofuel targets(Ozdemir, Hardtlein et al. 2009) (Bringezu, Schutz et al. 2009; Ozdemir, Hardtlein et al. 2009; Hertel, Tyner et al. 2010; Smyth, O Gallachoir et al. 2010; Taheripour, Hertel et al. 2010). However, to the best of our knowledge, almost no one has examined the consequences of biofuel targets in the presence of sustainability criteria. The US and EU criteria are quite different in that the US criteria apply only to US biofuel production, but the EU criteria apply to land used for biofuels anywhere in the world. While biofuel targets mandate certain levels of biofuel production, sustainability measures put restrictions on land-use changes induced by biofuel production. One can consider land restrictions defined in biofuel programs as a set of mandates which restrict land that can be used to produce biofuels. This means that biofuel programs impose two sets of mandates at the same time: 1) biofuel targets and 2) land restrictions. While several studies have examined the impacts of the biofuel targets, this research will explore the land restrictions imposed by the US and EU. That is, we will evaluate the sufficiency of sustainable land to meet biofuel targets and comply with land restrictions defined in biofuel programs globally. The main objective of this research is to determine the extent to which the US and EU sustainability criteria are binding. That is, do the results of the land use analysis change due to biofuel expansion in the presence of sustainability criteria. The previous research implicitly assumes the sustainability criteria are not binding. This research introduces sustainability criteria into the land use analyses due to biofuels.

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