food security, indirect land use change and greenhouse mitigation policies in the European Union Interaction of biofuel

The European Union is putting a lot of effort in mitigating climate change effects and lessen the dependence of fossil fuels. Several policies are being proposed in the Renewable Energy Directives (RED), such as increasing the share of renewable sources in fuel mix, specific increases in fuel production? and anti-dumping strategies. However, these policies raise concerns with respect to competition with food production, and indirect increases GHG emissions caused by land use change. Our study evaluates the RED policies together with additional climate mitigation policies using a computable general equilibrium modeling. Our results suggest that, for the case of the European Union (EU), an increase in biofuel production does not represent a threat in food security. In addition, we found that the land use change in the EU are modest compared to previous studies in developing regions. Our findings illustrate how the imposition of a regime can vary depending on the economic development of a region.

Interaction of biofuel, food security, indirect land use change and greenhouse mitigation policies in the European Union Conference Paper