Last Updated- Oct 26, 2009 16:42 - - 0 Comments


UN calls for careful approaches to biofuels as Ghana gets first commercial production of biodiesel

biofuelThe United Nations has recently published a report calling for careful approaches to the cultivation of crops for biofuel.

The report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for a far more sophisticated approach when developing biofuels as an environmentally-friendly energy option.

The report calls on governments to fit biofuels into an overall energy, climate, land-use, water and agricultural strategy if their deployment is to benefit society, the economy and he environment as a whole.

It also acknowledges that some first generation biofuels such as ethanol from sugar cane can have positive impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

There have been heated debates over the cultivation of non-food crops for the production of biofuels since the emergence of the global economic and food crisis coupled with the energy crisis facing the world. There indeed have been cases of conflicts between local farmers and investors in the biofuel crops like sugar cane and Jatropha.

The UN report titled Towards Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels is based on a detailed review of published research up to mid-2009 as well as the input of independent experts world-wide.

According to the report the production and use of biodiesel from palm oil on deforested peatlands in the tropics can lead to significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions-up to 2,000% or more when compared with fossil fuels.

This is mainly as a result of carbon releases from the soils and land. However, a positive contribution to greenhouse gas emissions can arise if the palm oil or soya beans are instead grown on abandoned or degraded land, it said.

Commenting on the report Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, which hosts the Resource Panel, said : “Biofuels are neither a panacea nor a pariah but like all technologies they represent both opportunities and challenges.”

“Therefore a more sophisticated debate is urgently needed which is what this first report by the Panel is intended to provide. On one level, it is a debate about which energy crops to grow and where and also about the way different countries and biofuel companies promote and manage the production and conversion of plant materials for energy purposes-some clearly are climate friendly while others are highly questionable,” he added.

“However, it is also a choice about how humanity best manages its finite land bank and balances a range of competing interests in a world of six billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050,” he said.

“The report makes it clear that biofuels have a future role, but also underlines that there may be other options for combating climate change, improving rural livelihoods and achieving sustainable development that may, or may not involve turning ever more crops and crop wastes into liquid fuels,” he explained.

Meanwhile, last week, a Norwegian company cultivating Jatropha for the production of biodiesel in Ghana, announced its first commercial production of 10 tons of biodiesel from its 650 hectares of one-year old crops.

The 50 barrels of biodiesel by Biofuel Africa is a landmark achievement in the history of Ghana and probably Africa.

However, in the face of the specific crisis and conflict between traditional food crop growers and investors in non-food crop growers for biofuels, it is necessary for the government of Ghana to take a closer look at the biofuels industry in the country and find ways to streamline it with policy and possibly legislation to inject discipline and a forward looking plan into the industry.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

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