IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v51y2012icp728-736.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of Jatropha-based biodiesel production on above and below-ground carbon stocks: A case study from Mozambique

Author

Listed:
  • Vang Rasmussen, Laura
  • Rasmussen, Kjeld
  • Bech Bruun, Thilde

Abstract

The need to mitigate climate change makes production of liquid biofuels a high priority. Substituting fossil fuels by biodiesel produced from Jatropha curcas has gained widespread attention as Jatropha cultivation is claimed to offer green house gas emission reductions. Farmers respond worldwide to this increasing demand by converting forests into Jatropha, but whether Jatropha-based biodiesel offers carbon savings depends on the carbon emissions that occur when land use is changed to Jatropha. This paper provides an impact assessment of a small-scale Jatropha project in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The paper outlines the estimated impacts on above and below-ground carbon stocks when land use is changed to increase Jatropha production. The results show that expansion of Jatropha production will most likely lead to the conversion of miombo forest areas to Jatropha, which implies a reduction in above and below-ground carbon stocks. The carbon debts created by the land use change can be repaid by replacing fossil fuels with Jatropha-based biodiesel. A repayment time of almost two centuries is found with optimistic estimates of the carbon debt, while the use of pessimistic values results in a repayment time that approaches the millennium.

Suggested Citation

  • Vang Rasmussen, Laura & Rasmussen, Kjeld & Bech Bruun, Thilde, 2012. "Impacts of Jatropha-based biodiesel production on above and below-ground carbon stocks: A case study from Mozambique," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 728-736.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:51:y:2012:i:c:p:728-736
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.09.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151200804X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.09.029?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. Nhantumbo, I. & Dent, J. B. & Kowero, G., 2001. "Goal programming: Application in the management of the miombo woodland in Mozambique," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 310-322, January.
    2. Rathmann, Régis & Szklo, Alexandre & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2010. "Land use competition for production of food and liquid biofuels: An analysis of the arguments in the current debate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 14-22.
    3. Sorda, Giovanni & Banse, Martin & Kemfert, Claudia, 2010. "An overview of biofuel policies across the world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6977-6988, November.
    4. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    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. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang, 2016. "Quantifying Spillover Effects from Large Land-based Investment: The Case of Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 227-241.
    2. Doshi, Amar & Pascoe, Sean & Coglan, Louisa & Rainey, Thomas J., 2016. "Economic and policy issues in the production of algae-based biofuels: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 329-337.
    3. Idowu Ezekiel Olorunfemi & Ayorinde Akinlabi Olufayo & Johnson Toyin Fasinmirin & Akinola Adesuji Komolafe, 2022. "Dynamics of land use land cover and its impact on carbon stocks in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overview," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 40-76, January.
    4. Gasparatos, A. & von Maltitz, G.P. & Johnson, F.X. & Lee, L. & Mathai, M. & Puppim de Oliveira, J.A. & Willis, K.J., 2015. "Biofuels in sub-Sahara Africa: Drivers, impacts and priority policy areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 879-901.
    5. Collins Okello & Stefania Pindozzi & Salvatore Faugno & Lorenzo Boccia, 2014. "Appraising Bioenergy Alternatives in Uganda Using Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)-Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and a Desirability Functions Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-22, February.
    6. A.N. Siregar & J.A. Ghani & C.H.C. Haron & M. Rizal & Z. Yaakob & S.K. Kamarudin, 2015. "Comparison of oil press for jatropha oil - a review," Research in Agricultural Engineering, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 61(1), pages 1-13.
    7. Deininger,Klaus W. & Xia,Fang & Mate,Aurelio & Payongayong,Ellen & Deininger,Klaus W. & Xia,Fang & Mate,Aurelio & Payongayong,Ellen, 2015. "Quantifying spillover effects from large farm establishments : the case of Mozambique," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7466, The World Bank.
    8. Singh, Bhaskar & Guldhe, Abhishek & Rawat, Ismail & Bux, Faizal, 2014. "Towards a sustainable approach for development of biodiesel from plant and microalgae," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 216-245.
    9. Avinash, A. & Subramaniam, D. & Murugesan, A., 2014. "Bio-diesel—A global scenario," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 517-527.
    10. Graham Von Maltitz & Alexandros Gasparatos & Christo Fabricius, 2014. "The Rise, Fall and Potential Resilience Benefits of Jatropha in Southern Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-29, June.
    11. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Doll, Christopher N.H. & Esteban, Miguel & Ahmed, Abubakari & Olang, Tabitha A., 2017. "Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 161-184.

    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. Vincent Martinet, 2012. "Effect of soil heterogeneity on the welfare economics of biofuel policies," Working Papers 2012/01, INRA, Economie Publique.
    2. Geir H. Bjertnæs, 2013. "Biofuel mandate versus favourable taxation of electric cars. The case of Norway," Discussion Papers 745, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0340 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Pontau, Patricia & Hou, Yi & Cai, Hua & Zhen, Yi & Jia, Xiaoping & Chiu, Anthony S.F. & Xu, Ming, 2015. "Assessing land-use impacts by clean vehicle systems," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 112-119.
    5. Lange, Mareike, 2011. "The GHG balance of biofuels taking into account land use change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2373-2385, May.
    6. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Jelte Harnmeijer, 2017. "Anaerobic Digestion of Feedstock Grown on Marginal Land: Break-Even Electricity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    7. Brinkman, Marnix L.J. & da Cunha, Marcelo P. & Heijnen, Sanne & Wicke, Birka & Guilhoto, Joaquim J.M. & Walter, Arnaldo & Faaij, André P.C. & van der Hilst, Floor, 2018. "Interregional assessment of socio-economic effects of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 347-362.
    8. Balogh, P. & Bai, A. & Popp, J. & Huzsvai, L. & Jobbágy, P., 2015. "Internet-orientated Hungarian car drivers’ knowledge and attitudes towards biofuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 17-26.
    9. 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.
    10. Forsell, Nicklas & Guerassimoff, Gilles & Athanassiadis, Dimitris & Thivolle-Casat, Alain & Lorne, Daphné & Millet, Guy & Assoumou, Edi, 2013. "Sub-national TIMES model for analyzing future regional use of biomass and biofuels in Sweden and France," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 415-426.
    11. Fiorese, Giulia & Catenacci, Michela & Verdolini, Elena & Bosetti, Valentina, 2013. "Advanced biofuels: Future perspectives from an expert elicitation survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 293-311.
    12. Matthias Diermeier & Torsten Schmidt, 2012. "Oil Price Effects on Land Use Competition – An Empirical Analysis," Ruhr Economic Papers 0340, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Correa, Diego F. & Beyer, Hawthorne L. & Fargione, Joseph E. & Hill, Jason D. & Possingham, Hugh P. & Thomas-Hall, Skye R. & Schenk, Peer M., 2019. "Towards the implementation of sustainable biofuel production systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 250-263.
    14. Jones, Jason P.H. & McCarl, Bruce A., 2016. "Impacts of U.S. Production-Dependent Ethanol Policy on Agricultural Markets," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236258, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. dos Santos Alves, Camila Elisa & Belarmino, Luiz Clovis & Padula, Antonio Domingos, 2017. "Feedstock diversification for biodiesel production in Brazil: Using the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) to evaluate the impact of the PNPB and the economic competitiveness of alternative oilseeds," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 297-309.
    16. Johanna Choumert & Pascale Combes Motel & Charlain Guegang Djimeli, 2017. "The biofuel-development nexus: A meta-analysis," CERDI Working papers halshs-01512678, HAL.
    17. Gbadebo Oladosu & Siwa Msangi, 2013. "Biofuel-Food Market Interactions: A Review of Modeling Approaches and Findings," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Cansino, J.M. & Pablo-Romero, M.del P & Román, R. & Yñiguez, R., 2012. "Promotion of biofuel consumption in the transport sector: An EU-27 perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 6013-6021.
    19. Choumert Nkolo, Johanna & Combes Motel, Pascale & Guegang Djimeli, Charlain, 2018. "Income-generating Effects of Biofuel Policies: A Meta-analysis of the CGE Literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 230-242.
    20. Diermeier, Matthias & Schmidt, Torsten, 2014. "Oil price effects on land use competition: an empirical analysis," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17.
    21. Bilgili, Faik & Koçak, Emrah & Bulut, Ümit & Kuşkaya, Sevda, 2017. "Can biomass energy be an efficient policy tool for sustainable development?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 830-845.

    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:51:y:2012:i:c:p:728-736. 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.