State of biofuel development in sub-Saharan Africa: How far sustainable?

Priyanka Jha and Stefan Schmidt

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021, vol. 150, issue C

Abstract: Extensive usage of fossil fuels in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has led to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that might adversely affect numerous sustainable development goals. However, biofuels produced from energy crops are carbon-neutral because the plants assimilated the CO2 released subsequently in the combustion process, therewith reducing GHG emissions. Numerous studies indicate that the carbon debt can be compensated if the total GHG emissions of biofuels produced and used are lower than the life cycle assessment (LCA) based emissions of fossil fuels being displaced. However, before selecting feedstocks for household- or even industrial-scale biofuel production, it is essential to assess how biofuel feedstock cultivation affects local or regional socioeconomic conditions as well as food insecurity and biodiversity. It is evident that appropriate initiatives in SSA can promote local biofuel production, trigger the establishment of biofuel markets while uplifting the livelihood of the affected population. In addition, biofuel import dependencies are reduced, poverty is mitigated, and the environmental footprint can be improved. Socioeconomic and ecological parameters mainly govern biofuel sustainability and resilience of the local and regional bioenergy sectors. At the same time, technology constraints such as the high extraction cost for oils from jojoba might hamper the biofuel establishment and sustainable development in the SSA region. Nevertheless, available strategies to overcome technological constraints and actual socioeconomic and environmental conflicts are critically discussed within the context of the SSA region.

Keywords: Sustainability; Sub-Saharan Africa; GHG emissions; Food insecurity; Energy policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121007152
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:150:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121007152

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111432

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().