Fuels derived from oil (petrol and diesel) remain essential for transport, but agricultural countries like France have begun the production of biofuels (ethanol and esters) from renewable biomass, in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Almost all of world production today (70 megatonnes oil equivalent, Mtoe) is provided by the first generation of biofuels: bioethanol (75 % of global production), produced from cereal starch derived from plants such as maize, sugar beet and sugar cane; biodiesel (25%) from vegetable oils, such as rapeseed or sunflower oil. These are mixed, in the one case, with petrol, in the other with diesel. A second generation using ligno-cellulosic biomass is currently being developed.
In a report published in 2016, the French government’s Accounting Office (la Cour des comptes) made an assessment of the biofuels industry in France, finding that production in 2015 stood at 0.6 Mtoe of ethanol and 1.7 Mtoe of biodiesel and occupied some 6 % of agricultural land; it had been stagnant at that level for five years.[1] Only if it uses biofuels will France be able to achieve the objectives of the EU Climate-Energy Plan (10% of renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020), since the contribution made by electric vehicles will be insufficient.
The reduction of CO2 emissions by substituting biofuels for fossil fuels (in theory they emi...