Selected for the Global Economic Symposium 2009

Food security and promoting modern uses of biomass as a source of energy in developing countries: Conflicting interests impossible to reconcile or two ends of a common strategy?

Biomass is the most important source of energy in many developing countries, most notably in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Although the bulk of biomass consumption comes from traditional uses of biomass such as the burning of firewood for basic household energy services, there is growing discussion on the potential to build up modern biomass energy industries in developing countries, e.g. biofuel and biogas industries.

On the one hand, biofuel production bears the danger of leading to land use competition, potentially crowding out food production and leading to higher agricultural prices that hit the world’s poorest hardest.

Thus, it might, at first sight, seem cynical to think about using agricultural goods for providing fuel. On the other hand, high prices could provide incentives for agricultural sector development. This would ultimately promote food security and provide resources for biofuel production while benefiting rural areas in developing countries. Furthermore, the environmental dimension is crucial as well: Land use change resulting in massive CO2 emissions is undesirable from a global climate point of view and could in addition aggravate problems of soil erosion and water availability. To avoid problems of food provision as well as to preserve valuable natural areas and carbon stocks it is proposed that mainly degraded land should be used to extend the agricultural area for biomass production. The development of an international certification scheme is necessary to promote a sustainable production of biofuels, including a certain greenhouse gas emission reduction target. Furthermore, south-south knowledge and technology transfer would be beneficial, given the dominant position of Brazil as an ethanol producer. In order to foster production and trade of biomass, the harmonization of technology and fuel standards is important as well as a reduction in trade barriers. Main questions to be addressed by the panel: What is the potential contribution of biomass energy to the future development of developing countries? How to prevent the adverse effects from changing land with high carbon storage value to agricultural land? How to prevent conflicts between energetic use of biomass and food security?