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Title: The social inefficiency of regulating indirect land use change due to biofuels

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15513· OSTI ID:1425823
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Inst. for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
  2. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
  3. Univ. of Idaho, Moscow, ID (United States). Dept. of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences
  4. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Inst. for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and Dept. of Plant Biology
+ Show Author Affiliations

Efforts to reduce the indirect land use change (ILUC) -related carbon emissions caused by biofuels has led to inclusion of an ILUC factor as a part of the carbon intensity of biofuels in a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. While previous research has provided varying estimates of this ILUC factor, there has been no research examining the economic effects and additional carbon savings from including this factor in implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. In this article we show that inclusion of an ILUC factor in a national Low Carbon Fuel Standard led to additional abatement of cumulative emissions over 2007–2027 by 1.3 to 2.6% (0.6–1.1 billion mega-grams carbon-dioxide-equivalent (Mg CO2e-1) compared to those without an ILUC factor, depending on the ILUC factors utilized. The welfare cost to the US of this additional abatement ranged from 61 dollars to 187 dollars Mg CO2e-1 and was substantially greater than the social cost of carbon of $50 Mg CO2e-1.

Research Organization:
South Dakota State Univ., Brookings, SD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG36-08GO88073; IIA-1301792
OSTI ID:
1425823
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 2017; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (35)

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Cited By (2)

Land use mediated GHG emissions and spillovers from increased consumption of bioplastics journal December 2018
Production technologies, current role, and future prospects of biofuels feedstocks: A state-of-the-art review journal June 2019

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