EFFECT OF BIOFUELS ON ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Authors: Yucheng Cao , Lucjan Pawłowski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Nowadays world faces crisis caused by growing energy demand. Threat of climate change caused by the increased emission of CO2 from burning of fossil fuels exerts pressure on wider use of renewable energy resources. It is believed that one of important resources of renewable energy are biofuels. In the paper we present that in the most cases it is not true. Wide use of biofuel, especially in European Union, poses threat to sustainable development of today’s world. It is going to be presented that the production of biofuels from agricultural crops is, in many cases, unsustainable due to the fact that it reduces the access to food by devoting cultivatable land to crops designated for the production of biofuels. What is more, it has also negative influence on the environment, namely it reduces biodiversity, pollute water and, what is curious, not in all cases the use of biofuels leads to the reduction of CO2 emission.

PL

Jednym z ważnych zagrożeń we współczesnym świecie jest rosnące zużycie surowców energetycznych. Obawy dotyczące zmian klimatu, jak się wydaje powodowanego przez wzrost emisji CO2 pochodzącego ze spalania paliw kopalnianych, powodują wzrost zainteresowania szerszym zastosowaniem odnawialnych źródeł energii. Panuje przekonanie, że jednym z ważnych źródeł energii odnawialnych są ciekłe biopaliwa. W artykule staramy się udowodnić, że to przekonanie jest błędne. Szerokie stosowanie biopaliw prowadzi do zagrożenia zrównoważonego rozwoju współczesnego świata. Wykazujemy, że produkcję biopaliw z roślin uprawowych jest w wielu przypadkach niezgodna ze zrównoważonym rozwojem, ponieważ redukuje dostęp do żywności poprzez przeznaczanie pól uprawnych na uprawę roślin wykorzystywanych do produkcji biopaliw. Ponadto, ma to negatywny wpływ na środowisko, gdyż prowadzi do redukcji bioróżnorodności, zanieczyszczenia wody, a także nierzadko nie powoduje redukcji emisji CO2.

Keywords

EN

sustainable development; biofuels; climate change

PL

zrównoważony rozwój; biopaliwa; zmiany klimatu

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 799-804

Dates

published

1 - 12 - 2013

online

22 - 01 - 2014

Contributors

author

Yucheng Cao

• School of Environmental and Recourse Science, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou 311300, China

author

Lucjan Pawłowski

• Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, ul. Nadbystrzycka 40 B, 20-618 Lublin, Poland

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/eces-2013-0055