Les biocarburants de deuxième génération et la compétition pour l’usage des terres

¹ INRA, unité collège de direction, centre de Rennes, Domaine de la Prise, 35 590 Saint-Gilles, France
² TAC, La Saigeais, 35 140 Saint-Hilaire des Landes, France
³ INRA, unité collège de direction, centre de Paris, 147, rue de l’université, 75 007 Paris, France

Abstract

First-generation biofuels produced from food and feed crops have often been criticised for their impacts on world food security and the environment mainly because they can divert land from food production and/or environment protection objectives. Hopes are thus turned to a quick development of second-generation biofuels produced from various sources of biomass that do not enter in direct competition with food and feed crops. This article analyses to what extent the development of bioenergy, in particular the development of second-generation biofuels in complement to the first generation, could affect world food security and the environment (green house gas emissions and biodiversity protection). We show that some negative effects of firstgeneration biofuels should be alleviated with a larger proportion of second-generation biofuels on the market. However, these effects are not vanished in particular if secondgeneration biofuels are made from dedicated energy plants that require land and thus enter into indirect competition with food and feed crops for land use.