Serious indirect effects of some biofuels on global biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions

Many biofuels that are presently sold on the European transport market need agricultural land for their production. Effects from indirect land-use change (ILUC) have a negative impact, not only on greenhouse gases as has been reported earlier, but also on global biodiversity. The overall emission reductions for biofuels based on energy crops can be low or even negative. These are some of the conclusions from a series of brief reports published by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) on the issue of indirect effects of bio-energy.