Effects of public policies on the sustainability of the biofuels value chain
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abstract
Worldwide biofuel production has attracted considerable attention during the past decade as renewable, biodegradable, and nontoxic fuels along with empirical technologies such as the sustainable use of firewood, charcoal, pellets, briquettes, and biogas. This approach has been motivated to reduce dependence and geopolitical instability on fossil fuels and encourage rural economic development, competitiveness, and sustainability. The public policies and technologies over the past 25 years in developed and some developing countries such as Brazil have searched for synergy between production of biofuels, and by-products derived from them, in complementary industries such as food, livestock, manures, and green chemicals within the value chain and bioeconomy, simultaneously improving the socioeconomic development and minimizing environmental impacts. This chapter, through a critical and reflective approach of existing scientific and academic literature, investigates and analyzes the impact that public policies and mandates have had on industrial outcomes for biofuels, development of domestic technologies, strategies for innovation, transfer and adoption of technologies, creation of competitive environments for sustainability, LCA (life cycle assessment) and economic viability of the transition to the use of biofuels, mainly in developing countries, and how the prospective of their use could benefit the stakeholders apart from meeting the climate change commitments.
