In recent years, global trade in biofuels has grown dramatically, albeit against a background of highly distorted markets for agricultural goods and for energy, and in a context of weak global governance for environmental public goods.

Using an empirical model, this study provides some insights into the functioning of the oilseed-biodiesel-diesel market complex in a large country that determines the biodiesel price, reflecting market equilibrium changes resulting from volatility in the crude oil price.

The rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM).

This report evaluates the principal costs and benefits of the European Union’s biofuels industry, based on an assessment of best available information. Depending on the availability of data, some costs and benefits are quantified, while others have not been due to a lack of systematic or disaggregated information.

Unable to cope fully with steadily climbing world oil prices since mid-2009, many of the 65 countries reviewed in this paper have progressed slowly or even reversed course in reforming pricing of petroleum products. End-user prices in July 2012 varied by two orders of magnitude across the countries.