Report predicts forced displacement of poor people from their land to meet EU targets to grow fuel crops. The European Union’s biofuel policies are driving up global food prices and pushing people in poor countries off their land, says a recent report of ActionAid. EU has a target of 10 per cent renewable energy in transport by 2020, and 88 per cent of this is expected to come from biofuels. The report Fuel for Thought comes at a time when the European Commission is set to submit a report on Renewable Energy Directive to the European Parliament this year.

The greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels have been under discussion for years. Now studies commissioned by the European Union are putting pressure on biodiesel in particular.

Widespread adaptation of biomass production for bioenergy may influence important biogeochemical functions in the landscape, which are mainly carried out by soil microbes. Here we explore the impact of four potential bioenergy feedstock crops (maize, switchgrass, Miscanthus X giganteus, and mixed tallgrass prairie) on nitrogen cycling microorganisms in the soil by monitoring the changes in the quantity (real-time PCR) and diversity (barcoded pyrosequencing) of key functional genes (nifH, bacterial/archaeal amoA and nosZ) and 16S rRNA genes over two years after bioenergy crop establishment.

Leaked EU draft texts confirm expectations that the 27-member bloc is likely to seek to 'green' farm subsidy payments after 2013 by adding new rules on protecting the environment. Controversially, though, the drafts also reveal new plans to allow some countries to re-allocate more direct payments to the production of particular crops - reversing prior attempts to 'decouple' farm support from production and thus reduce the trade distortions that this support might cause.

Generating energy from crops instead of oil and coal can have counterproductive effects. “The use of biomass can lead to additional emissions of greenhouse gases”, says lead author Alexander Popp of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). “This is the case if forests get cut down to plant energy crops instead.” Forests are important CO2 sinks. At the same time, biomass is expected to play an important role in  future energy systems.

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/6/3/034017/fulltext

Shifting from corn to perennial crops in making biofuels is essential to save clean water, argues Jeremy Martin.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S017a.html

Proponents of biomass-based fuels push for sustainability against a steady tide of conflicting analysis, but can advanced biofuels cut the mustard?

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/pdf/474S02a.pdf

The most controversial aspect of biofuels is the perceived competition for farmland. Will advances in biofuels and agriculture send this trade-off speeding towards the history books?

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352_supp/full/474S06a.html