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Bioenergy and Land Use: Framing the Ethical Debate

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Abstract

Increasingly, ethical concerns are being raised regarding bioenergy production. However, the ethical issues often do not stand out very clearly. The aim of the present paper is to improve on this situation by analyzing the bioenergy discussion from the perspective of land use. From this perspective, bioenergy production may give rise to ethical problems because it competes with other forms of land use. This may generate ethical problems mainly for two reasons. First, bioenergy production may compete, directly or indirectly, with food production; and as consequence the food security of poor people may be adversely affected (social aspects arguments). Secondly, the production of bioenergy may directly or indirectly lead to deforestation and other changes of land use that have a negative effect on greenhouse gas emissions (environmental arguments). So from this perspective the main challenge raised by bioenergy production is to secure responsible land use. The purpose of the paper is not to advocate, or promote, a specific ethical position on bioenergy, but to structure the main arguments found. The paper falls in two parts. One part addresses social aspects arguments for using agricultural land for bioenergy—where food insecurity, malnourishment, and significant food poverty are the main concerns. The second part scopes environmental implications—notably greenhouse gas emissions impact, as affected by deforestation and other (indirect) land-use changes. Alongside showing some of the current dilemmas presented by wider land-use changes, arguments are analyzed from two ethical angels: a consequentialist and a deontological.

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Notes

  1. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13056862.

  2. There is a whole discussion to be had on deciding on which type of renewable is the most feasible and desirable, taking into account conversion efficiency, availability, potential, cost, and many other factors, see. e.g., the International Energy Agency (IDEA) http://www.iea.org/subjectqueries/index.asp.

  3. DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:140:0016:0062:en:PDF.

  4. Intention may be a simplistic concept when it comes to the investigation of the origins of a policy. Palmer (2010) states that there was an “intricate interplay of variables” involved in the development of the UK’s flagship biofuels policy, the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, involving “not just scientific evidence and discursive argument but also political interests and institutional factors.” The concept is arguably useful, however, for our purposes, as it allows us to subject the rationale for policies to ethical analysis.

  5. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32009L0028:EN:NOT.

  6. http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/biofuels/sustainability_criteria_en.htm.

  7. This point is also evident in the consultation undertaken by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2011:92). In this consultation questions about land use changes, and how or whether to include them in any assessment, elicited very polarized replies.

  8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7065061.stm) accessed 20 March 2010.

  9. Quoting Ed Matthew, Friends of the Earth. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7026105.stm) accessed 20 March 2010.

  10. Guardian, 10 April 2011 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Special thanks are also due to Paul Robinson. Financial support through the Subproject “International and national governance of bioenergy: trade, environment and integration of energy systems” under the Research Alliance “Enabling and Governing Transitions to a Low Carbon Society” funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research (Grant no. 09-067275/DSF) and the UK project LACE and the BBSRC Sustainable BioEnergy Centre (BSBEC) is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Danish Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    C. Gamborg & P. Sandøe

  2. Centre for Applied Bioethics, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus Loughborough, Nottingham, UK

    K. Millar & O. Shortall

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  1. C. Gamborg
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Correspondence to C. Gamborg.

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Gamborg, C., Millar, K., Shortall, O. et al. Bioenergy and Land Use: Framing the Ethical Debate. J Agric Environ Ethics 25, 909–925 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-011-9351-1

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