Today in Biofuels Opinion: “We cannot come to a long-term solution on climate change with conventional fuels as we know them at this moment”

Yvo de Boer, head of the secretariat for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change: “We cannot come to a long-term solution on climate change with conventional fuels as we know them at this moment. We have to find alternatives. Second generation biofuels potentially hold an important part of the solution. It’s very good that they (the Europeans) are taking a second look at [their biofuels] target. They would have to find some other way of putting policies in place that add up to the minus 20 percent of emissions that they are committed to.”

Richard Perrin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural economist: “It is reasonable to conclude that ethanol is responsible for increases in US food prices about 1% in the last two years. In food-insecure areas of the world, however, the impact of ethanol on food prices has been higher, perhaps as much as a 15% increase, simply because the typical food basket in those areas contains more direct grain consumption.

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