Are Biofuels bio-friendly ?

Biofuels have come under attack lately as scientists claim that they are not as environment friendly as they are supposed to be.  Those who still argue that agrofuels emit much less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels mostly ignore the fact that emissions are released during production, as a result of land-use change, fertiliser application and processing.

Still, many governments, international financial institutions such as the World Bank, and multinational agribusiness, oil and transport companies are promoting agrofuels as a solution to world energy needs.

the business of pollution

The world pollution problem has grown into a huge 130-billion dollar market for “carbon credits“. Under the “Clean Development Mechanism” programme, established under the Kyoto Protocol, the most industrialized nations can invest in polution-reduction projects, and earn 1 carbon emission reduction credit for every ton of carbon dioxide reduction. The credits are then sold to other polluters.

Very “managerial” and economically viable plan, however there is a tiiiny flaw – me thinks.  If you just move the polluters from one side of the world to the other, how are the emmisions going to actually *drop* to lower levels ?