08.08.2015   Fertilization

Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels

Of the 12 Principles of the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, six are clearly social (Legality, Planning, monitoring and continuous improvement, Human and labor rights, Local food security, and Land rights), while parts of the other criteria include social justice aspects. For example, small feedstock producers are exempt from greenhouse gas emis­sions, Criterion 3c. Biofuels’ contribution to climate change mitigation shall be improved over time. However, given the expenses involved in measuring and implementing climate change mitigation, exempting small producers makes sense. All the conservation criteria (Principle 7) take into account local communities as well as ecosystems. Principle 9, Water, includes “respect prior formal or customary water rights”. Principle 11 includes specific concern for the people place. “The use of technologies in biofuel production shall seek to maximize production efficiency and social and environmental performance, and minimize the risk of damages to the environment and people.”

A number of scholars have attempted to specify the criteria to be used to indicate social sustainability. Table 17.1 provides examples of potential social criteria proposed by Markevicius et al. [24] for the development of liquid biofuel standards. Much of biomass

Table 17.1 Potential social criteria for liquid biofuels.

Criterion No.

Criterion Name

Criterion Explanation

1

Compliance with laws

Complies with all applicable laws and internal regulations like certification principles, countering bribery

2

Food security

Enough land locally available for food production, preference of marginal sites for energy crops

3

Land available for other human activities

Enough land locally available for housing, energy (e. g. firewood), recreation, and other resource supplies

4

Participation

Stakeholders included in decision making; facilitation of self-determination of stakeholders

5

Cultural acceptability

Consider spiritual values, local knowledge

6

Social cohesion

Migration and resettlement, wealth distribution, fair wages, intergenerational equity, charity

7

Respect for human rights

Health services, liberty rights, security, education

8

Working conditions of

workers

Worker health, work hours, safety, liability regulations, exclusion of child labor

9

Respecting minorities

Recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, gender issues

10

Standard of living

Public service support, access to energy services (e. g. electricity lifeline tariffs)

11

Property rights and rights of use

Land and resource tenure, dependencies on foreign sources (e. g. financial investments, knowledge) fair and equal division of proceeds, customary rights

12

Planning

Stating clear objectives, a management plan is written, implemented, and updated as necessary

Adapted with permission from Markevicius et al. (2010) [24]. Copyright © 2010, Elsevier.

for fuels is transformed into liquid fuels. These criteria are focused on the sustainability of local populations, and do not lend themselves to plantation systems.

Table 17.2 provides examples of social criteria proposed by Lewandowski and Faaij [30] for the development of biomass/bioenergy standards.