From a rise in B to a fall in C? SVAR analysis of environmental impact of biofuels

Pavel Ciaian, d'Artis Kancs, Giuseppe Piroli and Miroslava Rajcaniova

No JRC95503, JRC Research Reports from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: This is the first paper that econometrically estimates the impact of rising Bioenergy production on global CO2 emissions. We apply a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) approach to time series from 1961 to 2009 with annual observation for the world biofuel production and global CO2 emissions. We find that in the medium- to long-run biofuels reduce global CO2 emissions: the CO2 emission elasticities with respect to biofuels range between -0.57 and -0.80. In the short-run, however, biofuels may increase CO2 emissions temporarily. Our findings complement those of life-cycle assessment and simulation models. However, by employing a more holistic approach and obtaining more robust estimates of environmental impact of biofuels, our results are particularly valuable for policy makers.

Keywords: time-series econometrics; biofuels; CO2 emissions; environment; agriculture; indirect land use changes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C22 C51 D58 Q11 Q13 Q42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: From a rise in B to a fall in C? SVAR analysis of environmental impact of biofuels (2015)
Working Paper: From a rise in B to a fall in C? SVAR analysis of environmental impact of biofuels (2015)
Working Paper: From rise in B to fall in C? Global environmental impacts of biofuels (2014)
Working Paper: From a rise in B to a fall in C? Environmental impact of biofuels (2014)
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