Welcome to "Fair Fuels?"
What are the socioeconomic impacts of biofuel production? To what extent can these fuels be produced and used in a socially and environmentally compatible way? Do they make an indispensable contribution to the energy transition or do they instead lead to a dead end? These questions are to be solved by Fair Fuels?, a junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). read on...
News
Presentation "Transnational contradictions and effects of Europe’s bioenergy policy" at OECD annual meeting
On 9 February 2012, Aaron Leopold presented the forthcoming "Fair Fuels?" Discussion Paper "Transnational contradictions and effects of Europe’s bioenergy policy: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa" at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) annual meeting of member state representatives working on Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). At the meeting, Leopold presented biofuels as a "Pandora's Box of PCD" whose complexity and ever-changing science create complex and dynamic policymaking challenges for governments interested in meaningfully addressing their economic, ecological and social implications. He concluded that the EU should seriously consider revising its biofuels policy if it is found to be a driver of land acquisitions currently associated with serious human rights questions related to treatment of vulnerable & marginalized groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Download Presentation (PDF)
Call for Abstracts: "Africa's land as a contested arena for international and national biofuel policies and actors" at the conference "Embattled Spaces – Contested Orders" (30 May - 2 June 2012, Cologne)
The Fair-Fuels?-Team organises the panel "Africa's land as a contested arena for international and national biofuel policies and actors" at the conference Embattled Spaces – Contested Orders of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD). The Call for Abstracts is open until 30 November 2011. The panel is organised by Fair-Fuels?-scientists Michael Brüntrup, Kristina Dietz, Raoul Herrmann and Aaron Leopold: Land in Africa is an increasingly contested resource, with manifold consequences for economic development, poverty, social differentiation, political stability and conflicts. One of the reasons for this trend is increasing global demand for biofuels, spurred largely by biofuels promotion policies in developed and developing countries. As a consequence, new types of political coalitions and economic investments have begun to emerge... read on
“Sugarcane-Ethanol-Production in Malawi” FairFuels?-Study presented at IEA-Bioenergy Workshop
19.-21.09.2011
Organized by the International Energy Agency the workshop on “Quantifying and managing land use effects of bioenergy“ was held in Campinas, Brazil, from 19- 21 September 2011. Elisa Dunkelberg (IÖW), researcher of the “Fair-Fuels?“ project presented the results of a case study on sugarcane ethanol production in Malawi. Under the title “Sugarcane Ethanol Production in Malawi – A ‘Real World‘ Case Study on Greenhouse Gas Emissions due to Direct and Indirect Effects“ she showed that the greenhouse gas balance of sugarcane ethanol produced in Malawi could be considerably improved by substituting coal used in the ethanol plant by biomass. Furthermore, indirect land use change (ILUC) can be avoided, at least in part, if expansions in crop production are linked to compensatory measures.
Workshop | Presentation Elisa Dunkelberg (pdf)
Participation in the World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 in Linköping, Sweden
9th – 13th May 2011
The World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 was held in Linköping, Sweden, from 9th Mai to 13th May 2011. In this event, Elisa Dunkelberg of the “Fair Fuels?” team (IÖW) presented results of a literature review on the influence of indirect land use change on the greenhouse gas balance of biofuels. The review intends to provide the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and to identify further research questions.
Research trip to Malawi to analyse the sugar/biofuels sector
27th April 2011
„Fair Fuels?“-researcher Raoul Herrmann returned in March from a five-months research stay in Malawi. Malawi produces on large-scale sugarcane since the 1960s for processing it into sugar. Ethanol is produced out of molasses since the 1980s. An important objective of the research trip was to collect data for analyzing socio-economic impacts of large-scale sugarcane production in producing rural regions. Extensive quantitative household-surveys were conducted, which included interviews with sugarcane farmers, plantation workers and other local populations. Village-level surveys complemented the household component. Elisa Dunkelberg and Anna Neumann from the “Fair Fuels?” team joined the research trip in February. Their main focus of work was to collect input data from respective actors to analyze the ecological impact of ethanol production. Expert interviews on social, economic and ecological impacts of all value chain steps were also conducted. Another important component of the research trip was to analyze the biofuels policy processes, for which the team was joined by Michael Brüntrup.
Participation in the 2010 Berlin Conference "Social dimensions of environmental change and governance"
8th - 9th October 2010
The 2010 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change was held at the Environmental Policy Research Centre at the FU Berlin from 8th - 9th October 2010. In this event, Thomas Vogelpohl and Bernd Hirschl of the "Fair Fuels?" team (IÖW) presented current results from the project module 6 (Potentials and Limitations of Policy Instruments for the Reduction of Social-ecological Problems). In accordance with the topic of this year's event - "Social dimensions of environmental change and governance" - the focus of the presentation was on the analysis of the social aspects of voluntary bioenergy certification initiatives and the legitimacy facets arising out of this way of governing sustainability.
Conference Paper
Participation in the Ökobilanz-Werkstatt in Darmstadt
September 28 to october 1 2010
The LCA workshop „Ökobilanz-Werkstatt”, which addresses Ph.D. students in the subject area of life cycle assessment, was held from september 28 to october 1, 2010 at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. Elisa Dunkelberg (IÖW), member of the "Fair Fuels?" team presented the state of the art of the integration of indirect land use changes in the green house gas balance of biofuels. The focus was on strengths and weaknesses of various methodological approaches.
Presentation (only in German)
"Fair Fuels?" at a glance
Download the project leaflet (pdf, 2 MB)
