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Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges

The Society convened a working group of leading experts to consider the science and technology prospects of delivering efficient biofuels for transport in the broader context of the environmental protection and sustainability.
The working group concluded that biofuels have a potentially useful role in tackling the issues of climate change and energy supply. However, important opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels, and to ensure wider environmental and social benefits, may be missed with existing policy frameworks and targets. Unless biofuel development is supported by appropriate policies and economic instruments then there is a risk that we may become locked into inefficient biofuel supply chains that potentially create harmful environmental and social impacts. New technologies need to be accelerated that can help address these issues, aided by policies that provide direct incentives to invest in the most efficient biofuels.