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2 CCLR 67 (2008)
Climate Change and the International Trade of Biofuels

handle is hein.journals/cclr2 and id is 71 raw text is: CCLR 112008 Climate Change and the International Trade of Biofuels 1 67 Climate Change and the International Trade of Biofuels Haroldo Machado-Filho* This paper explores the significant role that biofuels have in mitigating greenhouse gases, especially in the transportation sector. The paper focuses specifically on the bene- fits of the use of ethanol and biodiesel and the emergence of their international trade, as well as some issues that have been recently raised regarding these alternative fuels. That includes environmental and socio-economic considerations which could potentially lead to tariff and non-tariff barriers to the international trade in biofuels. I. Introduction The causes of climate change are strongly related to the current patterns of production and consump- tion of fossil fuels. The 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted that CO2 emissions increased 8o% from 1970 to 2004, representing 77% of the emissions in 20041. One of the largest growth areas in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in this period in an assessment of end-users sectors was the transportation sector with 120%. This sec- tor accounts for 23% of world energy-related CO2 emissions, with 74% coming from road vehicles.2 Moreover, GHG emissions from the transporta- tion sector are expected to continue to sharply increase in the near future, given that each year an increasing number of people is gaining access to motorised forms of transport. Although the vast majority of the world's population still does not * Haroldo Machado-Filho is Ph.D. in International Law, Graduate Institute of International Studies - IHEI, Geneva. He is special adviser to the Interministerial Commission on Global Climate Change in Brazil. The ideas contained in this paper do not neces- sarily reflect the official position of Brazil on this issue. 1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, WMO/UNEP, 2007 (unedited copy), p. 1 (Topic 2). 2 IPCC, Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change, Wor- king Group III Report, WMO/UNEP, 2007, p. 325. 3 Ibid. 4 UNCTAD, The Emerging Biofuels Market: Regulatory, Trade and Development Implications, UNCTAD/DITC/TED/2006/4, New York and Geneva 2006, p. 5. 5 Ethanol is an alcohol produced by the biological fermentation of carbohydrates derived from plant material, cf. ibid. 6 Biodiesel is a synthetic diesel-like fuel produced from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled cooking grease, cf. ibid. have access to personal vehicles, this situation is changing fast, especially in emerging economies. Despite the growing pressure on all countries to sig- nificantly mitigate GHG, it is certainly unfair to pre- vent new users from enjoying the benefits and lux- uries of modern mobility. If greenhouse gas emissions are to be curbed, the transportation sector cannot develop along the same path it has in the past or in the business-as- usual scenario, given that it heavily depends on the burning of fossil fuels. In fact, according to the IPCC, 95% of the total energy used by world trans- port is based on petroleum3. Nowadays, a worldwide debate is taking place on how to reduce dependence on oil, especially in the transportation sector, given that not only its com- bustion is recognised as one of the main factors intensifying the greenhouse effect on our planet, but also the price of oil, a finite resource, is rising significantly in the international market. Although it is unrealistic to think that the dependence on oil will be overcome in a short space of time, it is certainly valid to discuss alternative energy sources related to the transportation sector. Among existing mitigation options, biofuels have an important role to play in this debate. Biofuels are fuels produced from biomass, which includes organic matter available on a renewable basis, such as agricultural crops and residues, wood and wood residues, animal wastes, etc4. From the variety of existing biofuels, this paper will focus on ethanol5 and biodiesel6, given that they are the most used liquid biofuels for transport-related ener- gy production and the only available large scale substitutes for petrol and petroleum diesel in trans- port. Also, they can provide considerable reductions

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