Indirect Effects Negate Global Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Substituting Gasoline With Corn Ethanol as a Transportation Fuel in the USA

Miguel Brandão

doi:10.3389/fclim.2022.814052

Abstract

Concerns over climate change have led to the promotion of biofuels for transport, particularly biodiesel from oilseed crops and ethanol from sugar and starch crops. However, additional concerns arose on whether the climate change mitigation potential of biofuels is negated by the associated direct land requirements (dLUC) for growing biofuel feedstocks, or by the indirect land requirements (iLUC) that compensate for the diversion of crops from food/feed into fuel, both cases potentially leading to emissions of greenhouse gases. We investigated official data over the last 20-year period to estimate the magnitude of the effects ethanol production in the USA has had on land use domestically and abroad. The data analyzed shows that, over the period, the use of corn for ethanol increased by 118 Mt per year. According to our model, most of it came from the displacement of other uses of corn, mainly feed, which was compensated for by increased feed production elsewhere. Results indicate a relatively low dLUC but a significant iLUC effect, mainly due to the compensation for the foregone feed production as a result of diverting corn into ethanol production. Meeting the renewable-energy target of 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol more than negates the climate benefits from avoided use of gasoline (by 18.0 Mt CO2-eq.), suggesting that promoting corn ethanol for global climate change mitigation may be counter-productive as, despite decreasing domestic emissions, global emissions increase. We suggest that the policy be revised accordingly.

Highlights

Concerns over climate change have led to the promotion of biofuels for transport, biodiesel from oilseed crops and ethanol from sugar and starch crops
The total production of corn for ethanol increased from 13 to 134 metric tons (Mt), which corresponds to a share increase from 6% to 37% of the total corn produced in the United Stated of America (USA) at the beginning and end of the 20-year period, respectively
The data show that most of the corn being produced annually is used for ethanol (117 out of 131 Mt), indicating the possibility of diversion from the other use(s) of corn that would otherwise have occurred if the land devoted to other purposes at the beginning of the period had remained dedicated to those other uses at the end of the period of assessment

Summary

Introduction

Concerns over climate change have led to the promotion of biofuels for transport, biodiesel from oilseed crops and ethanol from sugar and starch crops The production of fuel from crops is intuitively superior in terms of its climate-change impacts relative to equivalent fossil-based fuels: the carbon released upon combustion is balanced by the carbon that the crop photosynthesized while growing. When a life cycle approach is taken, it is clear that there are a range of indirect emissions that cannot be excluded from robust and comprehensive assessments, such as those from fertilizer production and land-use change (LUC). LUC emissions can negate the climatechange benefits from replacing fossil fuels with biofuels (see e.g., Brandão et al, 2011)

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