1. Environmental sustainability
Dr Guy C. Barker
Director, Genomics Resource Centre
Life Sciences, University of Warwick

2. Principle 2: Environmental sustainability
Biofuels should be environmentally sustainable

3. Current biofuels Biofuels used in UK: only 31% met
environmental standards in 2009/2010
Rapid expansion is unsustainable
Forests, grasslands and peatlands cleared
Current crops have low yield
Existing sustainability policies are generally weak
Too many standards and certification systems

4. Recommendation
An international environmental sustainability standard for biofuels production should be developed, for example by the United Nations Environment Programme

5. New approaches Using the waste parts of food crops to produce biofuels
Lignocellulosics
E.g. willow, miscanthus and switchgrass
Uses all of the plant biomass
High energy outputs
Do not strip nutrients from the soil
Can be bred to improve yield, water use and pest resistance   

6. Algal biofuels Mostly at the experimental stage
Expensive harvesting and processing
No need for complicated processing technologies
Do not compete for
agricultural land

7. Recommendation
Policy makers should incentivise research and development of new biofuels technologies that:
avoid environmental harms
avoid social harms
need less land and other resources
reduce greenhouse gas emissions