It says governments should replace biofuel targets with technology-neutral policies such as carbon taxes, and place more emphasis on energy saving and improving vehicle efficiency. Speaking to ENDS on Tuesday, one of the paper's authors predicted that ministers would "share some of its concerns, but not its conclusions".
The report was prepared for the OECD's roundtable on sustainable development, which meets in closed session in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the potential of biofuels and the impact of policies to promote them. Ministers and government representatives from a dozen OECD countries will attend, along with scientists, business leaders and NGOs.
The paper argues that currently most biofuels typically deliver greenhouse gas emission saving of less than 40 per cent. When fertilizer use and biodiversity loss are taken into account, their environmental impact can "easily exceed" that of fossil fuels. Meanwhile the growth in biofuel production is likely to keep food prices "high and rising" for at least a decade.
In March EU heads of state adopted a target to raise the share of biofuels in transport fuels to 10 per cent by 2020, subject to sustainability criteria and the availability of second-generation biofuels. The European commission is currently drafting sustainability criteria to accompany the new biofuel proposal, scheduled for adoption in December.
But the report questions this type of policy approach, arguing that sustainability criteria are hard to enforce and liable to be challenged in the World Trade Organisation. "Though theoretically possible, reliance on certification schemes to ensure sustainable production is not a realistic safeguard", it concludes.
Moreover, the report adds that biofuel policies like those proposed by the EU establish ambitious targets without an in-depth understanding of how they can be achieved sustainably. "There is a serious risk that biofuel quotas for demand are higher than potential sustainable supply, creating a strong incentive to 'cheat' in the system".
In a reaction to the report Friends of the Earth called on the EU to scrap the proposed ten per cent target and force automakers to "clean up their cars".
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