BIOENERGY AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES PERSPECTIVE: ENERGY VS. FOOD SECURITY
Marcella Randazzo, Maria Sassi
1. Introduction
Biomass is a typology of renewable energy source (RES) that is defined, in general, as that capturing its energy from ongoing natural processes, like sunshine, wind, flowing water, geothermal heat flows and biological processes, and whose energy flow is replaced by a constant natural process in a short period of time (University of Massachusetts, 1997). RES are very different in their nature and their possible uses. Hydroelectric power is the most widespread, but there are also solar, tidal, wave, wind and biomass energy (European Environment Agency, 2006). Among them, biofuels are a type of biomass obtained by the oil of the so-called energy crops, like sugar cane, soy and sunflowers.
After the energy crisis of the 1970s, this typology of energy source has gained increasing attention due to the emergence of various problematic issues related to the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy, in particular, in terms of their exhaustibility, their polluting emissions and wastes, and their rising and unstable prices.
All the above-mentioned issues have gained a growing interest in the international arena thanks to the debate on the increase in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, its effects on global climate and the way in which they could be faced. It has been estimated that the major part of the increased concentration of these gases in the atmosphere have been generated through fossil fuel burning and land use changes undertaken by industrialized countries (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2006). For this reason, the global community has urged industrialized and emerging countries to take concrete initiatives in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions[1].
Various international meetings have been focused on the need for a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions. Among their most relevant initiatives, there is the promotion of a widespread use of energy from renewable energy sources, since it may lead to a sensible reduction in the emissions of CO2 and other pollutants.
In 1988, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with the World Meteorological Organization, created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which became the place where global warming began to be considered as a real and urgent environmental problem. In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held and the Framework Convention on Climate Change was presented, setting out an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge of climate change (United Nations, 1992)[2]. One of the most relevant outcomes of the Conference in Rio de Janeiro[3] has been a document called “Agenda 21” (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, 2005), a plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally in order to pursue environmentally sustainable development[4].
In December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was drafted, during the third annual meeting of the ratifying counties of the Convention of 1992. The Protocol established an international plan to prevent further climate change (United Nations, 1998)[5].
Although the text of the Kyoto Protocol had been adopted unanimously, it only entered into force on the 16th February 2005: many industrialized countries have proved not to have the sufficient political will to fulfil the obligation of a substantial reduction in greenhouses gases emissions[6].
The full implementation of Agenda 21, and the Commitments to the Rio principles, were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in 2002 Johannesburg. During the Summit, the UN reaffirmed the commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the UN Millennium Summit in 2000: the 7th goal remarks the concept of environmentally sustainable development (General Assembly of the United Nations, 2000; United Nations, 2005).
These two gatherings for the first time have put a specific focus on developing countries. Energy issues clearly rise as a central point in the path toward the achievement of sustainable development goals[7], as the Johannesburg Declaration stated that energy must be considered a human need, like other basic needs[8]. In a context in which almost two billion people have no access to modern energy services (The World Bank, 2000), in order to ensure that sustainable development goals will be achieved, one of the main challenges lies in finding a balance between the growing demand for energy and its impact on the environment[9]. For facing this challenge, energy-related issues have been integrated in the MDG Reports (Takada and Fracchia, 2007) and the need for concerted actions for a wider access to modern energy services by the poor has arisen (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2005).
As the experiences collected by the World Bank and carried out in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Bolivia and Sierra Leone, for example, the promotion of RES can play a significant role in reaching the above mentioned enlargement in energy access in a sustainable way (The World Bank, 2005 and 2006), and in particular bioenergy, given its local availability and its tight connection with rural activities. As food security and environmental sustainability can often reinforce each other, RES are understood as important sources for facing undernourishment. Furthermore, the introduction of energy crops can contribute to the increase in bio-diversity of areas previously dedicated to monoculture (Italian Biomass Association, 2003; Hall and House, 1995).
In spite of these potential positive effects, some criticisms have arisen, regarding a more extensive use of RES in developing countries.
Some argues that the crops need to be grown, collected, dried and fermented, and the oil obtained needs to be transformed to be used safely by common engines: all these steps in the production chain of biofuels require particular infrastructures and technology, and result in a higher price of the final product, which creates a barrier against a widespread use of this kind of bioenergy particularly in developing countries[10].
Focusing on the case of bioenergy (i.e. energy produced from biomass), and in particular on biofuels, the main aspect of the debate refers to the opportunity cost of the land. The core of the debate lays on the fact that large areas should be used to cultivate energy crops, in order to produce significant level of bioenergy; the main assumption of the criticism can be found in the consideration that those areas could be used to cultivate other kinds of production (especially food crops), or could even left wild for conservation purposes. In this perspective, some argues that the achievement of food security by a country and its bioenergy production are in a sort of competition[11].
In this context, the paper aims at providing a critical review of the recent literature on bioenergy and developing countries interest. It is organised as follows. The first section analyses the market for biomass distinguishing between OECD and non-OECD countries in order to point out the main differences between the two areas. The second section is dedicated to the investigation of the energy security perspective shared by both industrialised and developing economies particularly the emerging countries. The third section gets into the specific interest of non-OECD countries, that relates to food security. Making reference to the concept of food security elaborated to the World Food Summit, the issue is faced in specific sub-sections dedicated to a specific dimension of the concept: food availability, access to food, food utilization and stability (Sassi, 2006).
Taking into account all these factors, the paper overcomes the traditional Malthusian perspective that is only focused on food production and the existence of a trade-off between bioenergy production (especially from dedicated cultivations of energy crops) and food security.
2. Biomass market and the role of OECD and non-OECD countries
Figure 1 illustrates the World Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES)[12] by source in 2003-2004. It shows that RES only represents the 13.1% of TPES; within this group, biomass (both commercial biomass and traditional one) plays an important role, accounting for almost 80% of total of RES, while solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy together account for less than 4% (Figure 2).
Figure 1- Fuel shares of World Total Primary
Energy Supply (2003 - 2004)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
Figure 2 - Shares of different
renewable energy sources (2003 - 2004)
(Other RES includes solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
In 2003, the world bioenergy production has been of 46,639,185 TJ (International Energy Agency, 2005), concentrated for the 86% in non-OECD countries[13]. Figure 3 shows that, among them, Asia and Africa are the leading producers, while Brazil as the only significant producer in Latin America. In particular, Ethiopia (19%), India (21%), China (23%) together with Brazil (5%) contributed approximately to the 70% of non-OECD total output.
Figure 3- Non-OECD Production of bioenergy by region (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
Non-OECD countries are also the major consumers with 89% of the world bioenergy consumption of which 47% is in China and India (Figure 4).
Figure 4 - Non-OECD Consumption of bioenergy by region (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
With respect to the difference in the type of available (and most adopted) biomass, the literature distinguishes between traditional and commercial biomass. Traditional biomass includes fuels that are not traded, like charcoal, fuelwood, dung and farm residues; it represents the 20% of the total primary energy supply in developing countries[14] and is mainly implemented in an unsustainable way[15] in the residential sector for cooking and heating (International Energy Agency, 2004).
On the other hand, commercial biomass includes all other fuels, which are taken up both in the residential sector and in the industrial sector, to produce heat and also electric power; it is adopted mainly in industrialized countries, but it is gaining increasing importance in many developing countries, especially in Latin America, where the production of biofuels is raising and it is starting to be exported (International Energy Agency, 2004), as in the case of Brazil (Ferreira Batista, 2003)[16].
Figure 5 and 6 show that non-OECD countries are net exporters of biomass, with an export market share of approximately 90%, while OECD economies are net importers controlling the import market.
Considering that in non-OECD countries total production accounts for 39,925,405 TJ and consumption for 37,501,494 TJ, it emerges that, although their pivotal role in international trade, they produce biomass essentially for their domestic consumption, being Brazilian exports the only significant ones (Figure 8).
Figure 5- World Exports and Imports of biomass –
absolute values (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
Figure 6: World Export and Import market share of biomass –
% (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
Figure 7: World Production and Final
Consumption of biomass – absolute value (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
Figure 8 - Non-OECD Exports and Imports of biomass
by region - absolute values (2003)
Source: based on International Energy Agency, 2007
The difference between production and consumption data is due not only to the existence of biomass trade but also to the inefficiency in the utilisation of bioenergy: energy dispersion is a highly relevant factor, especially in non-OECD countries that produce and consume mainly traditional biomass for heating and cooking[17].
In order to complete the above described framework in the perspective of sustainable development, two kinds of obstacles can be underlined, considering on one hand the changes in energy consumption patterns occurring in emerging countries, and on the other hand the actual traditional biomass consumption patterns in many developing countries.
The first issue refers to the global increase in CO2 and other polluting emissions, which can be expected as following the raise in fossil fuels consumption in developing countries.
The second aspect is less apparent and refers to relationship existing between the widespread use of traditional biomass in developing countries and their low agriculture productivity: this relation can be explained not only by the fact that traditional biomass requires a lot of time to be collected and is one a major cause of indoor pollution, thus affecting women’s and children’s education and health, and reducing their human capital and their ability to perform agricultural activities (Bruce, Perez-Padilla and Albalak, 2000; World Health Organization, 2006); but also by the fact that the biomass burnt in stoves could be used as fertilizer (International Energy Agency, 2004).
3. Energy security: a common perspective of OECD and emerging countries
Both in OECD and non-OECD countries, the promotion of a widespread use of RES, and biomass in particular, has both a political and an economic value.
A primary political reason for the promotion of biomass as a clean energy source is related to the need to comply with the commitment undertaken after the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol[18], which is proving to have a rising impact on international public opinion and a rising consideration within the international political arena[19].
On the other side, in industrialised countries it is possible to identify reasons to promote a more widespread supply and demand of bioenergy that are related to their different agricultural and energetic policies.
Especially in the case of bioenergy produced by dedicated cultivations, the support to its promotion is linked to the support given to alternative and more productive uses of set-aside lands. At the regional and national level, this support is granted mainly through traditional agricultural programs (the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is a typical example), which have both socio-political and economic aims: improvement in farmers’ income, control over rural-urban migration and over urban congestion, preservation of rural culture and environmental conservation (European Commission Directorate General for Agriculture; 2004).
Besides being a useful instrument for the agricultural policy[20], the promotion of bioenergy production is also related to the fact that nowadays many industrialized countries are aiming at the achievement of energetic national self-sufficiency, or at least of a significant reduction of external dependency on energy exporting countries, especially oil and natural gas exporting ones[21]. The subsequent improvement in national energy security would have a high political value, also due to the instability that characterizes many oil-exporting countries in the world.