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Biofuels & climate change: Challenges to food security in the 21st century

Authors: Fischer G, van Velthuizen H, Shah M

Publication Year: 2009

Reference: Options (IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria), Winter 2009/2010, pp.18-19

www.iiasa.ac.at/Options

Abstract

New IIASA research shows that biofuels produced from food crops may have a greater impact on food security up to 2050 than climate change. While the impacts of climate change on the global food harvest are modest at first, global warming becomes a high risk by the middle of the century and beyond, as it starts to seriously harm arable land and water resources. However, at the same time, advances in technology will mean that biofuels can be grown on non-arable land, reducing competition with food production.