The dilemma of indirect land-use changes in EU biofuel policy – An empirical study of policy-making in the context of scientific uncertainty

Di Lucia, Lorenzo and Ahlgren, Serina and Ericsson, Karin (2012) The dilemma of indirect land-use changes in EU biofuel policy – An empirical study of policy-making in the context of scientific uncertainty. Environmental Science & Policy, 16. pp. 9-19. ISSN 14629011

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Abstract

The potential impact of policies promoting transport biofuels on the use of land due to the indirect effects of feedstock cultivation has generated a controversy in the EU. Policy-makers are urged to regulate the matter without conclusive scientific evidence concerning the scale and severity of indirect land-use change (iLUC). By looking at this situation as an instance of policy making in the context of scientific uncertainty, this study analyses ways to deal with iLUC of biofuels policies learning from policy fields where similar dilemmas were confronted in the past. The experience with technologies such as genetically modified organisms, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power and radioactive waste, and transport biofuels is instructive for this purpose. Policy approaches identified in the case studies are applied to the case of iLUC. The results show that a preventive approach, which appears as the most practical choice in terms of effectiveness and stakeholders’ acceptability, however, also involves a risk of treating scientific uncertainty as certainty (the uncertainty paradox). Policy-makers, scientists and stakeholders all have responsibility to avoid this paradox, in order to limit future controversy.

Item Type:	Scientific journal article, Newspaper article or Magazine article
Subjects:	Social studies > Others in social studies > Social studies not elsewhere classified
Department/unit:	Dipartimento economia aziendale, sanità e sociale > Centro competenze management e imprenditorialità
Depositing User:	Lorenzo Di Lucia
Date Deposited:	21 Dec 2022 11:15
Last Modified:	21 Dec 2022 11:17
URI:	http://repository.supsi.ch/id/eprint/13641

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