Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

While the rapid expansion of palm oil cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysia over the last decades has contributed to rural development, serious negative impacts have occurred. As a response, sustainability certification schemes such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have been established. Yet the connections of the oil palm industry with regard to biofuels are complex, and the capacity of certification to truly reduce social and environmental impacts remains questioned. The aim of the chapter is to assess how oil palm production affects the local environment and human well-being, so as to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the potential role of palm oil biofuel to clean energy provision and local development. We first provide an in-depth literature review about the impacts of oil palm cultivation and palm oil biodiesel production/use for ecosystem services, biodiversity, and human well-being. We then draw on empirical data from RSPO stakeholders regarding their perceptions about the extent/severity of those impacts and the potential of the industry to mitigate them. Our study shows how palm oil biodiesel production/use impacts biodiversity and several ecosystem services in Malaysia and Indonesia, which in turn can compromise the well-being of the local communities that rely upon them. Findings suggest that, far from being homogeneous, RSPO’s stakeholders’ perceptions are very divergent, particularly regarding the industry’s impact on climate and biodiversity. Reconciling these different perceptions is the first step for coming up with mutually acceptable standards and will be the great bet for certification schemes in the future.

Traditionally, the command and control approach has dominated the realm of environmental regulations. In a nutshell, the government is supposed to set a standard by obtaining objective scientific information and conducting a rational assessment of risks and benefits, and to enforce it by conventional stick and carrot mechanisms such as monitoring and penalty. In reality, however, this model has turned out to be not as effective as it was supposed to be. First of all, the cost of monitoring all regulated activities turns out to be too large for the public to pay for. While there have been efforts to improve monitoring devices, only a few who tries to make a large sum of short-term profit by evading regulations can do an enormous harm to the environment. Secondly, the command and control approach encouraged distrust among stakeholders. Supervising agencies and environmental groups are always being skeptical about what the industry does. Meanwhile, the industry becomes frustrated with the regulatory pressures and tried to manipulate through lobbing. In the end, rule-making processes become acrimonious, and the main goal of protecting the public through regulation is forgotten in the battle.

One of the core questions for sustainability science is investigating how the dynamic interactions between nature and society can be better incorporated into emerging models and conceptualizations that integrate the Earth system, social system, and human system (Kates et al. 2001; Komiyama and Takeuchi 2006). Since these interactions, by their nature, relate to various stakeholders and players from many different fields, the problem-solving process requires the collaboration and partnership of these players. Many efforts have been made to structure diverse and fragmented knowledge for facilitating their collaboration (Choucri et al. 2007; Kumazawa et al. 2009).

Biofuels have been identified as having diverse environmental, social, and economic impacts, as discussed in Chap. . For this reason, the use of biofuels to realize a sustainable society requires study that takes into account the respective characteristics of biofuel deployment on a global, regional, national, and local scale. In this chapter, we examine deployment strategies for sustainable biofuels on a global scale by surveying the current and future issues that need to be considered. These issues include environmental impacts starting with the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biofuels and including other issues such as energy security, food security, rural development, agriculture and industrial policy, trade, and north-south issues. We then examine ways that biofuel deployment strategies can address these issues to realize a sustainable society.

This chapter explores the potential for a regional perspective on biofuels in Asia. In the late 2000s, there were high expectations in many Asian countries that biofuels could be produced and consumed on a large scale, and enhance energy security, provide jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There were also high expectations of significant biofuel trade, particularly of exports from Southeast Asia to the EU and Japan. Several Asian countries have biofuel blending mandates and produce modest quantities of biofuels. Current levels of biofuel use in Asian countries may be feasible, but it is likely to be difficult for biofuels to account for a large share of transport fuel use. Overall, this chapter concludes that large-scale increases in production are probably not realistic without large-scale diversion of land from other uses such as food production, and without further pressure on the environment and other resources necessary for production, particularly water. It is not always clear where large amounts of land might be available, so there is no clear source of large-scale sustainable biofuel exports. Encouragement of smaller scale production tailored to local conditions as a way to promote rural development, poverty reduction, and management of certain kinds of waste may be more realistic. However, without large economies of scale, it will be difficult to reduce costs. In addition, there are various other challenges to the promotion of small-scale biofuels such as capacity of farmers, availability and cost of land, water, labor, and other inputs, and availability of markets for final outputs. If the main goal is to increase rural employment rather than energy security or GHG emissions reduction, then there may be other ways to accomplish this besides biofuels. Sustainability standards and certification systems are one possible way to encourage the development of biofuels in a positive direction. However, while they may enable sustainable incremental production, they cannot create new land for biofuels, and if they are to be effective, they should restrain the availability of new land by preventing excessive land use change from forests or food crops.

The introduction and diffusion of biofuel industry have been promoted in many developed countries including Japan, which has established concrete mandates with numerical targets for both bioethanol and biodiesel. This chapter quantitatively assesses various environmental impacts by expanding biofuel production and ethanol usage and analyzes the interlinkages among different impacts under several options for introducing biofuel in Japan. The author uses life-cycle carbon footprint (LCCO), water footprint (WF), and ecological footprint (EF) to measure sustainability, by considering feedstock types, changes in land use, imports, and environmental conditions as well as domestic supply capacity and national mandates. Based on the analysis, policy implications of moving toward sustainable biofuel are briefly discussed.