IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Balancing biofuels and biodiversity

09 October 2008 | News story

The viability of biofuels in today’s market was debated at the World Conservation Congress today, with the launch of new biofuels scorecards by IUCN, WWF, the World Bank and The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels.

An open consultation process has drafted 12 principals and criteria for sustainable biofuel production, covering rural development, conservation, land and labor rights, greenhouse gas, and other social, environmental and economic impacts.

Although this seems like a stringent process, Geoffrey Howard from IUCN’s Global Invasive Species Programme insists the risks can far outweigh the benefits of biofuels.

“Conserving biodiversity goes way beyond the emotional cost; it also looks at the cost of conserving livelihoods and the economy,” he said. “The risks are real and can be measured. The cost of controlling invasive weeds, for example, currently cost around 1-2 trillion dollars worldwide.

Growing concern over global energy supplies, prices and energy security, and increased climate change concerns have created an intense global interest in biofuels. As a result, large investments have been made to develop biofuels as a partial alternative to fossil fuels.

The World Bank and WWF also launched their Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard to provide a reasonable first cut at indicating whether a proposed biofuel project is likely to have a net positive or net negative impact on the environment.

“Because of the descriptive nature of the scoring system, the scorecard will allow the user to compare different biofuels and different biofuel production systems across key criteria in terms of sustainability,” said David McLaughlin of WWF-US’s Managing Director of Agriculture.