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"The objective of this study is to:  compile the available recent literature on ILUC emissions;  compare these emissions with the assumed gains of biofuels;  assess how ILUC changes the carbon balance of using biofuels;  formulate policies to avoid these extra emissions associated with ILUC. Trends in land use, with and without biofuels All the studies on global agricultural markets reviewed predict that new arable land will be required to meet future global demand for food and feed. Although there will be increased productivity on current arable land (intensification), food and feed demand will probably grow faster, which means that mobilization of new land is likely to occur. Biofuels produced from crops (the current mainstream practice) will add extra demand for crops like wheat, rice, maize, rapeseed and palm oil. This will increase prices for these crops (as well as for land) and lead to two impacts: intensification of agricultural production and conversion of forests and grasslands to arable land. In this report we consider the issue of indirect land use change initiated by EU biofuels policy and seek to answer the following questions:  What is the probability of biofuels policies initiating land use changes?  What greenhouse gas emissions may result from indirect land use change, expressed as a factor in the mathematical relation given above?  What technical measures can be applied and what policy measures adopted to limit or entirely mitigate indirect land use change and the associated greenhouse gas emissions? We first (Chapter 2) broadly discuss the mechanism of indirect land use change. We next discuss why there is a perception among stakeholders that there is a serious risk that EU biofuels policy will initiate indirect land use change (Chapter 3) and consider the figures cited by other studies as an indication of the magnitude the associated greenhouse gas emissions  (Chapter 4). We then broadly consid

Early comprehensive life cycle assessments (LCA's) that compared biofuels with fossil fuels already appeared in the beginning of the eighties. Since then the public, scientific and political interest in biofuels has continuously grown and the number of biofuels and assessed parameters has increased.At the same time, the methodology for this type of assessment has improved with certain aspects of the approach having come up by and by a process which still continues today. Several issues related to the land use currently stand in the centre of expert discussions. Keywords: Environmental assessment; Biofuels; Transport; Land use assessment; Fossil fuels Article Outline 1. Objective, scope and background 2. Procedure 3. Results: comparison of biofuels and fossil fuels 3.1. Biofuels from agriculture compared to fossil fuels and against each other 3.2. Biofuels from residues compared to fossil fuels and against each other 4. Results: land use aspects 5. Conclusions and outlook 5.1. Competing land use 5.2. Competing biomass usages

Biofuels production will create an estimated total of 123,000 jobs by 2012, according to a report released last week titled U.S. Economic Impact of Advanced Biofuels Production by Bio Economic Research Associates. The report estimated that advanced biofuels production will create 383,000 jobs by 2016 and 807,000 jobs by 2022.

The EU yesterday denounced a House of Commons report calling for a moratorium on the increased use of biofuels and made plain it would stick to mandatory targets for the use of biofuels in transport when it unveils a climate change package today. Yesterday's report from the Commons environmental audit committee warned that biofuels were too expensive, environmentally damaging and making a negative contribution to cutting greenhouse gases, and said British government and EU plans to force greater use of biofuels should be rethought. In an unusually strong criticism of the Commons committee, Andris Piebalgs, the EU commissioner for energy, insisted that biofuels had to be supported as the "most immediately feasible way" of reversing greenhouse gas discharges from cars. "The [European] Commission strongly disagrees with the conclusion of the British House of Commons report," said Piebalgs.

By 2020, algae-based biofuels may be 'a commercial reality', but not to the extent to make a difference within this timeframe.

Biofuels have received another environmental black mark.

a new study released by the Common Fund for Commodities at an international forum on biofuels held recently in Kuala Lumpur. "Fundamentally, there is a link between poverty reduction and biofuels sector development that can be promoted," said Ambassador Ali Mchumo, the managing director of the Common Fund in Amsterdam.

UK and European governments should not have pursued targets to increase the use of biofuels without putting in place "robust" measures to prevent environmental damage, MPs said today. [Follow 'Are biofuels sustainable?' near bottom of page for full report (45pp)

A new report by Sir David King, senior scientific advisor to UBS Investment Bank, explores the challenges facing biofuels (PDF) and the role they can play in a low-carbon future.

"Fueling local economies and soil regeneration: Biofuels and biochar production for energy self-sufficiency and agricultural sustainability Our project combines engineering, social science, and environmental science to advance knowledge in producing biofuels and biochar from local biomass, and analyze its feasability and impact in a rural African context. "

"How Good Politics Results in Bad Policy: The Case of Biofuel Mandates" Discussion Paper September 2010 Author: Robert Lawrence, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Belfer Center Discussion Papers Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Environment and Natural Resources

While chemical engineers, microbiologists, agronomists, and others struggle to find ways of making cellulosic ethanol commercially competitive, a few synthetic biologists and metabolic engineers are focusing on an entirely different strategy. More than fifteen hundred miles away from the Midwest's corn belt, several California-based, venture-backed startups founded by pioneers in the fledging field of synthetic biology are creating new microörganisms designed to make biofuels other than ethanol.

Biopact reports that Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, presented his annual report to the General Assembly in New York, which calls for a 5-year moratorium on the production of first-generation liquid biofuels made from food crops such as corn, wheat, palm oil and rapeseed. A UN special rapporteur is an independent expert, who does not receive any financial compensation for his or her work.