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Indirect Land Use Impacts of Biofuels

What is Indirect Land Use Change?

A perennial pasture is plowed to plant annual biofuel feedstock crops, releasing carbon that was stored in the soil. Michael Bomford photo.

 

A surviving fragment of Amazon rainforest surrounded by cleared farmland in Brazil’s Mato Grosso province. NASA image.

Indirect land use change (iLUC) is a widely debated concept that seeks to quantify the impact a new policy or commercial activity has on global patterns of existing land use. These impacts differ …

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Biofuels and Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Can we reduce greenhouse gases with biofuels? Explore biofuels, the carbon cycle and potential impacts.

Palm oil plantation, in Indonesia. Photo: Achmad Rabin Taim; Wikimedia Commons.

Table of Contents

Biofuels and the Carbon Cycle

From the standpoint of human-released carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gas emissions, and contributions to climate change biofuels have one large advantage over gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels: The feedstocks for biofuels …