Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:51:11am WEST
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Daily Overview |
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Egg-Timer: Agriculture, Forests and Land Use Change Location: D-111 Session Chair: Aaron Smith, UC Berkeley | |
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Using Vegetable Oils for Biofuel Accelerates Tropical Deforestation and Increases Carbon Emissions 1: UC Davis, United States of America; 2: UC Davis, United States of America; 3: UC Berkeley, United States of America Biofuels are promoted worldwide as a strategy to replace fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, their climate benefits are uncertain because biofuel production can induce deforestation and other land use change that causes carbon emissions. Here we show that global demand for biomass-based diesel fuel between 2002 and 2018 drove the conversion of approximately 1.7 million hectares of forest to oil palm in Indonesia and Malaysia, which is about one-fifth of the total forest-to-palm expansion during this period. Using econometric models and high-resolution satellite data, we demonstrate that biomass-based diesel demand raised palm oil prices, which in turn accelerated deforestation, primarily in natural forests. The associated land-use change released more than one gigaton of CO2, giving biomass based diesel higher carbon emissions per megajoule than that of fossil diesel. These findings indicate that biofuels derived from vegetable oils have likely increased, rather than reduced, global emissions, and highlight the urgent need to shift renewable fuel policies away from crop-based feedstocks. | |