Assumptions in the European Union biofuels policy: frictions with experiences in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique.
The biofuel project is an agro-industrial development and politically contested policy process where governments increasingly become global actors. European Union (EU) biofuels policy rests upon arguments about societal benefits of three main kinds - namely, environmental protection (especially greenhouse gas savings), energy security and rural development, especially in the global South. Each argument involves optimistic assumptions about what the putative benefits mean and how they can be fulfilled. After examining those assumptions, we compare them with experiences in three countries - Germany, Brazil and Mozambique - which have various links to each other and to the EU through biofuels. In those case studies, there are fundamental contradictions between EU policy assumptions and practices in the real world, involving frictional encounters among biofuel promoters as well as with people adversely affected. Such contradictions may intensify with the future rise of biofuels and so warrant systematic attention.
Jennifer
J
Franco
Les
L
Levidow
David
D
Fig
Lucia
L
Goldfarb
Mireille
M
Hönicke
Maria Luisa
ML
Mendonça
D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D056804:Biofuels / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D001938:Brazil / Q000208:ethnology; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D000431:Ethanol / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D005062:European Union / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005858:Germany / Q000208:ethnology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D009073:Mozambique / Q000208:ethnology; D011634:Public Health / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011640:Public Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012423:Rural Health / Q000266:history; D012424:Rural Population / Q000266:history
D056804:Biofuels; D000431:Ethanol