Opinion & Analysis
Kenya needs sustainable biofuel projects
Virgin founder and chairman Richard Branson, poses with a biofuel Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine during an interview. Countries are looking for different sources of energy to replace expensive imported oil. Photo/REUTERS
Posted Friday, November 6 2009 at 00:00
Last month, Unep issued an enlightening report titled: Towards Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels (www.unep.fr).
The report gives guidance mainly to policy-makers on wider and interrelated factors needed to be considered when deciding on relative merits of pursuing one biofuel over another.
The report discusses roles of biofuels on the wider climate change agenda, impacts on agriculture, croplands, fresh water and biodiversity.
Each country has varying justifications for biofuels programmes, and each country has differing impacts.
For policy makers, it helps to develop a comprehensive biofuels programme that is thoroughly debated and evaluated for value addition to the economy and that has reduced negative social environmental impacts.
Transport fuels
The report emphasises bio-energy and bio-mass of which bio-fuels are one feature that is applied mainly as transportation fuels.
For most of developing countries biomass (for example firewood and charcoal ) will remain the main form of energy demand for cooking and heating and emphasis should be on how efficiently bio-mass is applied, and how the forest cover is managed and maintained.
Afforestation, reforestation, agro-forestry, charcoal development policies all supplement the rural bio-energy requirements for developing countries.
On transport bio-fuels, the report singles out the US, Brazil and the EU as the main producers.
USA has a stated policy of increasing biofuels use as a way of diversifying away from imported fossil fuels from politically volatile regions so as to increase security of supply.
Brazil was driven to develop a successful and sustainable biofuels programme in the mid 70s to redress the high cost of imported oil and has to date maintained this strategy.
EU has embarked on biofuels strategy driven primarily by Kyoto Protocol compliance on Green House Gases reduction.
The report lists Malawi as one of the countries currently producing bio-ethanol.
Yes, Malawi together with Kenya in the early 80s and in response to the high oil prices caused by the Iranian oil crisis successfully implemented sugar to bio-ethanol programmes that included a 10 per cent blend of alcohol in petrol.
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