IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v118y2018icp658-665.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reply to commentary on the special issue Scaling up biofuels? A critical look at expectations, performance and governance

Author

Listed:
  • Goetz, Ariane
  • Searchinger, Tim
  • Beringer, Tim
  • German, Laura
  • McKay, Ben
  • Oliveira, Gustavo de L.T.
  • Hunsberger, Carol

Abstract

The special issue Scaling up bioenergy? identifies major policy expectations attached to biofuels production worldwide, and it provides systematic reviews of actual biofuel performance and governance in these areas. Papers address the extent to which policy expectations related to climate change mitigation, energy security, rural livelihoods and risk mitigation have been achieved, and the effectiveness of public and private governance in advancing sector sustainability. Building on these findings, the synthesis paper asks, "What next?" for countries wishing to advance national biofuel programmes as one option for the necessary divestment from fossil fuels. Among other sine qua nons, the special issue highlights the urgent need to downscale global energy demand, and to stop treating biofuels as an isolated sector. Goldemberg et al. (2018) query several aspects of our approach, from research design, data collection, to our recommendation to apply the "precautionary principle" in research as well as policy making. Unfortunately, Goldemberg et al. (2018) incorrectly portray our main argument. Moreover, they claim bias in our approach and mistakes in our empirical evidence, however, without bringing forward an evenhanded critique of research philosophy, methodology or referencing different empirical literature. We fully stand behind our research philosophy and findings presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Goetz, Ariane & Searchinger, Tim & Beringer, Tim & German, Laura & McKay, Ben & Oliveira, Gustavo de L.T. & Hunsberger, Carol, 2018. "Reply to commentary on the special issue Scaling up biofuels? A critical look at expectations, performance and governance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 658-665.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:118:y:2018:i:c:p:658-665
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.03.046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518301794
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.03.046?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Man, Reinier & German, Laura, 2017. "Certifying the sustainability of biofuels: Promise and reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 871-883.
    2. Kuemmerle, Tobias & Levers, Christian & Erb, Karlheinz & Estel, Stephan & Jepsen, Martin R & Müller, Daniel & Plutzar, Christoph & Stürck, Julia & Verkerk, Pieter J & Verburg, Peter H & Reenberg, Anet, 2016. "Hotspots of land use change in Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14.
    3. Ribeiro, Barbara Esteves, 2013. "Beyond commonplace biofuels: Social aspects of ethanol," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 355-362.
    4. Grubler, Arnulf, 2012. "Energy transitions research: Insights and cautionary tales," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 8-16.
    5. Janaun, Jidon & Ellis, Naoko, 2010. "Perspectives on biodiesel as a sustainable fuel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 1312-1320, May.
    6. Turnheim, Bruno & Geels, Frank W., 2012. "Regime destabilisation as the flipside of energy transitions: Lessons from the history of the British coal industry (1913–1997)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 35-49.
    7. Horta Nogueira, Luiz Augusto & Moreira, Jose Roberto & Schuchardt, Ulf & Goldemberg, Jose, 2013. "The rationality of biofuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 595-598.
    8. Wilson, Charlie, 2012. "Up-scaling, formative phases, and learning in the historical diffusion of energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 81-94.
    9. Andy Stirling, 2014. "Transforming Power: social science and the politics of energy choices," SPRU Working Paper Series 2014-03, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    10. Hunsberger, Carol & German, Laura & Goetz, Ariane, 2017. "“Unbundling” the biofuel promise: Querying the ability of liquid biofuels to deliver on socio-economic policy expectations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 791-805.
    11. Searchinger, Timothy D. & Beringer, Tim & Strong, Asa, 2017. "Does the world have low-carbon bioenergy potential from the dedicated use of land?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 434-446.
    12. Alexander Popp & Florian Humpenöder & Isabelle Weindl & Benjamin Leon Bodirsky & Markus Bonsch & Hermann Lotze-Campen & Christoph Müller & Anne Biewald & Susanne Rolinski & Miodrag Stevanovic & Jan Ph, 2014. "Land-use protection for climate change mitigation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1095-1098, December.
    13. Deepak Jaiswal & Amanda P. De Souza & Søren Larsen & David S. LeBauer & Fernando E. Miguez & Gerd Sparovek & Germán Bollero & Marcos S. Buckeridge & Stephen P. Long, 2017. "Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an expandable green alternative to crude oil use," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(11), pages 788-792, November.
    14. Goetz, Ariane & German, Laura & Hunsberger, Carol & Schmidt, Oscar, 2017. "Do no harm? Risk perceptions in national bioenergy policies and actual mitigation performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 776-790.
    15. Oliveira, Gustavo de L.T. & McKay, Ben & Plank, Christina, 2017. "How biofuel policies backfire: Misguided goals, inefficient mechanisms, and political-ecological blind spots," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 765-775.
    16. Christoph Schmitz & Hans van Meijl & Page Kyle & Gerald C. Nelson & Shinichiro Fujimori & Angelo Gurgel & Petr Havlik & Edwina Heyhoe & Daniel Mason d'Croz & Alexander Popp & Ron Sands & Andrzej Tabea, 2014. "Land-use change trajectories up to 2050: insights from a global agro-economic model comparison," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 69-84, January.
    17. German, Laura & Goetz, Ariane & Searchinger, Tim & Oliveira, Gustavo de L.T. & Tomei, Julia & Hunsberger, Carol & Weigelt, Jes, 2017. "Sine Qua Nons of sustainable biofuels: Distilling implications of under-performance for national biofuel programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 806-817.
    18. Laura German & Davison Gumbo & George Schoneveld, 2013. "Large-Scale Land Acquisitions: Exploring the Marginal Lands Narrative in the Chitemene System of Zambia," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 2, June.
    19. Bojana Bajželj & Keith S. Richards & Julian M. Allwood & Pete Smith & John S. Dennis & Elizabeth Curmi & Christopher A. Gilligan, 2014. "Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(10), pages 924-929, October.
    20. Krausmann, Fridolin & Erb, Karl-Heinz & Gingrich, Simone & Lauk, Christian & Haberl, Helmut, 2008. "Global patterns of socioeconomic biomass flows in the year 2000: A comprehensive assessment of supply, consumption and constraints," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 471-487, April.
    21. Anthony Young, 1999. "Is there Really Spare Land? A Critique of Estimates of Available Cultivable Land in Developing Countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 3-18, March.
    22. Alcantara, Camilo & Kuemmerle, Tobias & Baumann, Matthias & Bragina, Eugenia V & Griffiths, Patrick & Hostert, Patrick & Knorn, Jan & Müller, Daniel & Prishchepov, Alexander V & Schierhorn, Florian & , 2013. "Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series satellite data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9.
    23. Compeán, Roberto Guerrero & Polenske, Karen R., 2011. "Antagonistic bioenergies: Technological divergence of the ethanol industry in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 6951-6961.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karel Janda & Ladislav Krištoufek, 2019. "The Relationship Between Fuel and Food Prices: Methods and Outcomes," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 195-216, October.
    2. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek, 2019. "The relationship between fuel and food prices: Methods, outcomes, and lessons for commodity price risk management," CAMA Working Papers 2019-20, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goldemberg, José & Souza, Glaucia Mendes & Maciel-Filho, Rubens & Cantarella, Heitor, 2018. "Scaling up biofuels? A critical look at expectations performance and governance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 655-657.
    2. Goetz, Ariane & German, Laura & Hunsberger, Carol & Schmidt, Oscar, 2017. "Do no harm? Risk perceptions in national bioenergy policies and actual mitigation performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 776-790.
    3. Das, Prantika & Jha, Chandan Kumar & Saxena, Satyam & Ghosh, Ranjan Kumar, 2024. "Can biofuels help achieve sustainable development goals in India? A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Karoliina Isoaho & Jochen Markard, 2020. "The Politics of Technology Decline: Discursive Struggles over Coal Phase‐Out in the UK," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 342-368, May.
    5. Searchinger, Timothy D. & Beringer, Tim & Strong, Asa, 2017. "Does the world have low-carbon bioenergy potential from the dedicated use of land?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 434-446.
    6. Kipling, Richard P. & Bannink, André & Bellocchi, Gianni & Dalgaard, Tommy & Fox, Naomi J. & Hutchings, Nicholas J. & Kjeldsen, Chris & Lacetera, Nicola & Sinabell, Franz & Topp, Cairistiona F.E. & va, 2016. "Modeling European ruminant production systems: Facing the challenges of climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 24-37.
    7. Qi, Ye & Lu, Jiaqi & Liu, Tianle, 2024. "Measuring energy transition away from fossil fuels: A new index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    8. Ahmed, Abubakari, 2021. "Biofuel feedstock plantations closure and land abandonment in Ghana: New directions for land studies in Sub-Saharan Africa," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    9. Millot, Ariane & Maïzi, Nadia, 2021. "From open-loop energy revolutions to closed-loop transition: What drives carbon neutrality?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    10. Gavin Bridge & Ludger Gailing, 2020. "New energy spaces: Towards a geographical political economy of energy transition," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(6), pages 1037-1050, September.
    11. Elke Stehfest & Willem-Jan Zeist & Hugo Valin & Petr Havlik & Alexander Popp & Page Kyle & Andrzej Tabeau & Daniel Mason-D’Croz & Tomoko Hasegawa & Benjamin L. Bodirsky & Katherine Calvin & Jonathan C, 2019. "Key determinants of global land-use projections," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Fagerberg, Jan, 2018. "Mobilizing innovation for sustainability transitions: A comment on transformative innovation policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1568-1576.
    13. Roberts, Cameron & Greene, Jenna & Nemet, Gregory F., 2023. "Key enablers for carbon dioxide removal through the application of biochar to agricultural soils: Evidence from three historical analogues," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    14. Juliana Subtil Lacerda & Jeroen C. J. M. Van den Bergh, 2014. "International Diffusion of Renewable Energy Innovations: Lessons from the Lead Markets for Wind Power in China, Germany and USA," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-28, December.
    15. Ignacio Cazcarro & Carlos A. López‐Morales & Faye Duchin, 2019. "The global economic costs of substituting dietary protein from fish with meat, grains and legumes, and dairy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(5), pages 1159-1171, October.
    16. Patrice Bougette & Christophe Charlier, 2019. "Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the EU Biofuel Industry: A Welfare Analysis," Post-Print halshs-02306022, HAL.
    17. Michael Chappell & Liliana LaValle, 2011. "Food security and biodiversity: can we have both? An agroecological analysis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(1), pages 3-26, February.
    18. Gosens, Jorrit & Hedenus, Fredrik & Sandén, Björn A., 2017. "Faster market growth of wind and PV in late adopters due to global experience build-up," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 267-278.
    19. Mazzucato, Mariana & Semieniuk, Gregor, 2018. "Financing renewable energy: Who is financing what and why it matters," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 8-22.
    20. Afra Bashira Binth Arman & Fridolin Krausmann & Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain & Mohammad Sujauddin, 2023. "The evolution of biomass flows in Bangladesh (1961–2019): Providing insights for Bangladesh's transition to a sustainable circular bioeconomy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(1), pages 71-83, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:118:y:2018:i:c:p:658-665. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.