| Popis: |
Prompted by the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and secure the future supply of energy in light of dwindling supplies of petroleum fuels and increasing fuel prices, biofuels are becoming increasingly pivotal in the sustainable development debate. However, a number of studies have shown contradicting and diverging results regarding the potential sustainability of biofuel systems, even for the same biofuel production chains and end use applications. For example, sugarcane ethanol produced in different agro-ecological conditions or countries may yield different social, economic, environmental outcomes due differences in agricultural inputs (e.g. fertilisers and chemicals) application, crop and oil yields per given area of production, transportation distances, capital and labour costs, and institutions governing biofuel production regimes. There is, therefore, need for contextual evaluation of any biofuel system that accounts for social, economic and environmental sustainability issues. Furthermore, while the social, economic and environmental issues have been discussed widely in the biofuels literature, there are no suggested mechanisms for their integration to reflect the sustainability of the whole biofuel system. Such mechanisms require an identification of all processes involved in the biofuel production chain including planning, energy crop production, processing, marketing and distribution, and end use applications and implications on system sustainability. |
