Assessing the biofuel options for Southern Africa

Abstract

Biofuels have been promoted as an environmentally-sustainable solution to the global energy crisis, and a way to counterbalance global increases in CO2. The reality is more complex; under some circumstances biofuels can be a major environmental and socio-economic threat. The question then is: under what circumstances can biofuels be socially and environmentally beneficial? Southern Africa, and especially the southern African countries other than South Africa, have characteristics that make them potentially suited to biofuel production, including the availability of land and labour. The different sustainability aspects pertaining to a biofuels industry in the region is investigated. The paper recommends that interplay of research, policy and controls is needed to ensure that a viable biofuels industry can be established in the southern African countries, with net positive socio-economic and environmental impacts