3.4 Biofuels

Biofuels were hailed as a possible solution to reducing carbon emissions with vehicles running on biodiesel. However, this quickly led to food price increases as farmland was converted to monoculture biofuel cash crops, and worsened deforestation as forests were cleared for further farm expansion. You can find a critical analysis of biofuels at:

  • Biofuelwatch

  • Centre for Alternative Technology

However, converting vehicles to use refined used vegetable oil causes no such environmental problems. This is an example of the need to look at the choice of fuel as well as the choice of vehicle (see ‘diesel conversion’).