Jane Romero

Socioeconomic Impacts of Biofuels in East Asia

This chapter examines the social and economic impacts of biofuels in East Asia by analyzing four country case studies, Indonesia, India, China, and Japan. These impacts vary widely depending on specific country conditions. Analysis of the main policies and market conditions in these countries showed that they all emphasized rural development, and Japan prioritized GHG emissions reductions, while the others prioritized energy security. The biofuel promotion targets of India and Indonesia were initially overambitious while Japan’s and China’s were more conservative. All four countries investigated alternative feedstocks and second generation biofuels. Regarding impacts, all four countries have recognized the limitations of biofuels for energy security. Biofuels may have some potential to contribute to rural development, even in Japan, but this is likely to be modest. The idea of growing non-food crops on wastelands is not very realistic, due to the need for significant inputs of fertilizer and water. In any case it is not always clear how much wasteland actually exists, and often it is actually being used for some other economically valuable purpose or providing ecosystem services. Biofuels do seem useful for recycling waste materials, especially in Japan. The main policy implication is that caution is desirable, and high unrealistic targets should be avoided due to risks of food-fuel conflict and limited supplies of land, water, and labor, and because the extent of the impacts and social benefits of biofuels is still unclear. Modest targets, near current utilization rates, may be more sustainable. Finally, it is suggested to promote the use of sustainability standards, which could enable biofuel stakeholders to demonstrate the sustainability of particular production methods in particular circumstances.