This briefing paper reviews evidence of the impacts of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on food prices, with a focus on corn and soy, and presents new analysis on the impact of the RFS on U.S. livestock farmers. Studies examining the relationship between food prices and biofuel demand conclude …
Germany's lower house of parliament on Thursday gave final approval to government proposals to cut the target amount of biofuels to be blended into fossil fuels this year. The lower house approved a plan to cut the 2009 blending target to 5.25 percent biofuel content in fossil fuel in 2009 …
Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings Plc said it has received approval to use 400,000 hectares of land to plant coconut trees in the Philippines to make alternative auto fuel, which it aims to sell to Japanese users in five years. The company, which plans to list on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative …
It seems unlikely that an agreement on the terms of the next climate treaty could be reached at the December-scheduled Copenhagen talks. The United States, not a member of the Kyoto Protocol and one of the major players in the international negotiations tussle over the climate treaty, has not yet …
Green is in as Indian corporates race to compete for a share of the fast-growing Rs 35,250-crore global market for climate-friendly technology and carbon credits Walk into the Wipro campus in Bangalore's Electronic City, and the first thing you are likely to notice is the windmills. Starting from the streetlights …
India added nearly 3 gw of grid-connected renewable energy in 2008, 2 gw of which came from the wind sector. The government is under intense pressure to increase electricity production and has put strong incentives in place to spur investment into renewable energy from both domestic and foreign investors. The …
Mangalore, June 7 All the buses of KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation) in Karnataka are likely to run on bio-fuel by the end of 2010-11. At present, around 2,000 buses in KSRTC are being run by fuel blended with ethanol. In an informal chat with Business Line here on …
R. Balaji Chennai: Nearly a decade after the Centre decided on an ethanol-blended petrol programme, it is yet to expand the supply countrywide despite a law that makes it mandatory. Lack of priorities, conflict of interest between the States and the Centre and pricing issues have stymied the programme, say …
Farm-state lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Obama administration to back a broader definition of biomass for use in renewable fuels, an issue entangled with congressional action on climate change. Some lawmakers from rural districts say they will not support the climate bill without a more favorable treatment of biofuels, such …
No single technology will triumph in the pursuit of a "greener" auto industry. Instead, the future will include a mix of cars powered by electricity, hydrogen fuel cells and biofuels, according to the world's biggest car makers. Gathered together at a hydrogen and fuel cells conference in Vancouver this week, …
Africa is taking the lead in creating its own biotechnology agenda, according to researchers based at South Africa's Durban University of Technology and the University of Kwazulu-Natal. They say that sugar-farming countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe are exploring large-scale production of bioethanol, while the use …
The Brazilian government and the sugar cane-based ethanol industry are hoping to head off complaints about harmful environmental and labor practices by investing in socially responsible production methods, speakers at the 2nd Ethanol Summit 2009 said on Monday. Brazil's Cane Industry Association (Unica), which is sponsoring the biennial event on …
A study was conducted to assess the oil content variation in Jatropha curcas seeds collected from seven sites varying in altitude and at different fruit maturity stages from wasteland and cultivable land.
India?s bio-fuel strategy continues to focus on use of non-food sources for production of bio-fuels: sugar molasses for production of ethanol for blending with gasoline, and non-edible oilseeds for production of bio-diesel for blending with petro-diesel. The government?s current target of five percent blending of ethanol with petrol has been …
For many years there has been the assumption that the negative impacts of climate change and the efforts to mitigate them have similar effects on both women and men. However, the world has progressively recognized that women and men experience climate change differently, and that gender inequalities worsen women
This paper sketches out the possible evolution of world food and agriculture to 2050 in terms of the key variables (production and consumption of the main commodity groups and the implications for food and nutrition in the developing countries). It presents a view of how these variables may evolve over …
Carbon credits derived from a fledgling forest conservation scheme for developing nations will struggle to compete with palm oil as an investment, industry advisers and conservationists said on Friday. A UN-backed scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) allows developing countries to raise potentially billions of dollars in …
Counting the climate-warming carbon dioxide locked up in forests could offer a cheaper way to curb the greenhouse gas than by considering only emissions from industry and fossil fuels, according to a new study. Factories, power plants and petroleum-powered vehicles are likely to emit some 500 billion tons of carbon …
