Although recently published research addresses a range of issues relating to the corn ethanol lifecycle, much attention has focused on the result that corn ethanol production has a significantly better emissions profile than the U.S.

Rainforest Foundation Norway and Cerulogy launched a report, ‘Driving deforestation’, looking at the impact of expanding palm oil use due to biofuel policies around the world. The report goes directly into the heated debate in Europe and the rest of the world about the use of palm oil for biofuels.

A summary of the history and current state of biofuels policy in Indonesia, highlighting the tension between the country’s renewable energy policy and the ambition in reducing its carbon emissions. Increasing domestic use of palm oil biodiesel is a pressing strategic issue for Indonesia.

Indonesia’s goals of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and biofuel production could be pursued synergistically through the promotion of more sustainable palm oil and biofuel production practices. One strategy to produce low-carbon renewable energy is to create advanced biofuel from unused palm residues.

Describes case studies of energy cropping in Europe in the context of advanced biofuel and bioproducts sustainability. European biofuel policy has been dominated by discussions about the indirect effects of biofuel consumption, and in particular indirect land use change and impacts on food prices and security.

The inclusion of indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions in the life-cycle assessment of biofuels in several biofuel policies has led to increased attention to the question of whether there are similar, behavior-induced emissions sources that could, or should, be added when assessing the life-cycle carbon intensity (CI) of oil production.

A detailed but accessible overview of the concept of indirect land use change and the way that ILUC emissions are estimated. Identifies factors that determine the size of ILUC effects when biofuel demand increases and shows how they are handled in the most important models used in the U.S. and EU.

The study estimates carbon impacts of bioenergy from ten biomass feedstock harvesting pathways feeding into three different production pathways. The harvesting pathways include forestry, agricultural residue, and dedicated energy crops.