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

"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

"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

Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable energy planning-A review S. D. Pohekar , and M. Ramachandran Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani 333 031, India Received 1 December 2003;  accepted 19 December 2003.  Available online 31 January 2004. Abstract Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques are gaining popularity in sustainable energy management. The techniques provide solutions to the problems involving conflicting and multiple objectives. Several methods based on weighted averages, priority setting, outranking, fuzzy principles and their combinations are employed for energy planning decisions. A review of more than 90 published papers is presented here to analyze the applicability of various methods discussed. A classification on application areas and the year of application is presented to highlight the trends. It is observed that Analytical Hierarchy Process is the most popular technique followed by outranking techniques PROMETHEE and ELECTRE. Validation of results with multiple methods, development of interactive decision support systems and application of fuzzy methods to tackle uncertainties in the data is observed in the published literature. Author Keywords: Author Keywords: Multi-objective optimization; Multi-criteria decision making; Decision support systems; Sustainable energy planning Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Overview of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods 2.1. Weighted sum method (WSM) 2.2. Weighted product method (WPM) 2.3. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) 2.4. Preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) 2.5. The elimination and choice translating reality (ELECTRE) 2.6. The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions (TOPSIS) 2.7. Compromise programming (CP) 2.8. Multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) 3. Multi-criteria decision making applications in energy planning 3.1. Multi-objective optimization 3.2. Decision Suppor

Environ Sci Technol. 2003 Dec 1;37(23):5414-6. Global sustainability and key needs in future automotive design. McAuley JW. Basell USA Inc., 912 Appleton Road, Elkton, Maryland 21921, USA. john.mcauley@basell.com Abstract The number of light vehicle registrations is forecast to increase worldwide by a factor of 3-5 over the next 50 years. This will dramatically increase environmental impacts worldwide of automobiles and light trucks. If light vehicles are to be environmentally sustainable globally, the automotive industry must implement fundamental changes in future automotive design. Important factors in assessing automobile design needs include fuel economy and reduced emissions. Many design parameters can impact vehicle air emissions and energy consumption including alternative fuel or engine technologies, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, drive train design, friction, and vehicle weight. Of these, vehicle weight is key and will translate into reduced energy demand across all energy distribution elements. A new class of vehicles is needed that combines ultra-light design with a likely hybrid or fuel cell engine technology. This could increase efficiency by a factor of 3-5 and reduce air emissions as well. Advanced lightweight materials, such as plastics or composites, will need to overtake the present metal-based infrastructure. Incorporating design features to facilitate end-of-life recycling and recovery is also important. The trend will be towards fewer materials and parts in vehicle design, combined with ease of disassembly. Mono-material construction can create vehicle design with improved recyclability as well as reduced numbers of parts and weight.

global threats NEW! Investigating Food-Borne Illness an interview with Robert Tauxe Airborne Disease Control by Wladyslaw Jan Kowalski The Spread of Dengue Fever an interview with Duane J. Gubler The Evolution of Emerging Viruses an interview with Eddie Holmes Biomedical and Biodefense Uses for Ricin an interview with Ellen Vitetta Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Problem an interview with Stephen S. Morse Plant Genebanks: Food Security by Geoffrey C. Hawtin and Jeremy Cherfas Agricultural Bioterrorism by Radford G. Davis Microbes: What They Do & How Antibiotics Change Them by Maura Meade-Callahan