Biofuels


Programme: Biofuels: challenges and opportunities

May 2, 2011 in Biofuels

Biofuels are in an ambiguous position in the field of sustainable energy, and in this programme we focus on their production in an effort to understand how they can be made, what impact they have on the environment, and how they should develop in the future. Dismissed outright by some environmentalists as a polluting threat to the natural environment, biofuels are also championed by others as a necessary product to feed demand for low-carbon fuels in shipping, aviation and road freight.

Discussion: What are the opportunities and challenges in biofuels production?

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Programme: The thorny question of biofuels

November 1, 2010 in Biofuels, Other

To overcome dwindling oil supplies and to reduce greenhouse gases, we can derive our transportation fuels from plants. But environmentalists argue biofuels encourage unsustainable agriculture and sacrifice food for fuel. So, are biofuels really the green saviour?

Discussion: What would it take to unlock the full potential of biofuels?

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Programme: A greener future with biofuels?

March 1, 2009 in Biofuels

In this months’s Comment Visions, we discuss the hot topic of whether biofuels are an ecologically-sound solution to the world’s increasing energy needs, or a potentially disastrous cause of deforestation and food shortages.

Dr Jeremy Woods, Lecturer in Biofuels at Imperial College London, believes that there are many challenges facing the world when it comes to energy in years to come, and also that biofuels will be a major factor in dealing with them, if it is managed properly.

Can bioethanol and biodiesel power the world of the future? Comment Visions meets Dr Woods at the British Sugar factory in Wissington, Norfolk, to find out.

Discussion: What role should biofuels play in our future energy mix?

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Programme: Food, Fuel and Biodiversity

August 1, 2008 in Biofuels

They were touted as the environmentally-sound and sustainable solution to fossil fuels, but in recent years biofuels have become one of the most controversial topics in the broader debate over the planet’s energy needs.

Professor José Esquinas-Alcázar is a Spanish scientist specialising in biodiversity. With background in plant genetics he has been a champion of policies promoting genetic diversity. As the cost and effects of the increase in biofuel production continues to make headlines and demand research, Euronews talks to Professor Esquinas about global interdependence, the need to protect against overreliance on certain crops and the future of the planet’s delicate ecological balance.

Discussion: Do we know enough about biofuels to encourage increased production as many governments are doing?

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