The arguments in favour agrofuels:
- Agrofuels are an alternative for the insecure and exhaustible supply of fossil fuel.
- Agrofuel production can reduce the dependency of developing countries on expensive import of fossil fuels, and improve their trade balance.
- The feedstock used to make agrofuels is renewable – fresh supplies can be produced as needed. In theory, therefore, there is an unlimited and secure supply.
- Certain forms of agrofuels have a positive GHG balance compared to fossil fuels and their use will therefore help to mitigate climate change.
- The production of agrofuels is not restricted to specific countries that can control supply and determine price.
- The production of agrofuels holds economic opportunities for (investments in) the agricultural sector in developed and developing countries, through generating employment and increasing rural incomes.
- Agrofuels can be easily blended with fossil fuel to a certain percentage and used in existing car and lorry engines (in contrast to electricity or hydrogen for which other cars and engines are needed).
- Agrofuels offer opportunities for a much-needed local energy provision given that, currently, 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity and 2.4 billion people have no access to modern fuels for cooking and heating.
The arguments against agrofuels:
- The GHG emission reduction potential of agrofuels strongly depends on whether or not natural vegetation is converted to agricultural land. Conversion of natural areas could lead to a negative balance.
- The production of feedstock for agrofuel competes with food production, both directly (when food crops are used to produce fuels) and indirectly (when land suitable for food production is used to cultivate non-food crops for biofuel production).
- The production of agrofuel feedstock affects food prices, with serious consequences for both poor city dwellers and small-scale farmers, who are often net food consumers.
- The production of agrofuel feedstock can lead to rising land prices and income inequality.
- The production of agrofuel feedstock poses a threat to biodiversity by creating economic incentives to clear forests and using wetlands and peat lands to grow the required feedstock.
- The production and processing of agrofuel feedstock causes competition for scarce water resources.
- There is a risk that people will be displaced from their land to make way for plantations or other large-scale agricultural schemes.