World Wildlife Fund says industrial biotech can produce massive reduction in global CO2; says biofuels could reduce CO2 by 1 billion tons

The World Wildlife Fund has released a report, based on peer-reviewed research provided by Novozymes as well as other scientists and the WWF staff, projecting that the increased use of industrial biotechnology could reduce carbon dioxide emissions between 1.0 and 2.5 billion tons per year by 2030.

This is the equivalent of 8 percent of total world CO2 emission in 2006, according to the United Nations, or 60 percent of the total emissions of the European Union.

WWF called for increased political backing for the industry to leverage positive environmental effects from the technology used today to produce detergents, textiles, bread, wine, beer, and bioethanol. However, the report cautions that strong public policies must be in place to help realize the potential of industrial biotech and points out initiatives such as pollution costs charged to petrol-based materials, investment in advanced waste management technologies, and labeling systems for bio-based products.

“In a few years sugar will be the new oil,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes. “Already today close to 200 biorefineries are operating in the US and yet we have only seen the beginning. Industrial biotechnology today is a sector with a number of pioneers who are demonstrating that this is technically feasible. However, to make the biobased economy into reality, they will require political backing. Novozymes is dedicated to helping ensure a radical shift in the way our societies work, and to reduce our dependency on oil.”

“WWF sees industrial biotech as an industry that can play a very significant role in the development of a new, green economy if developed in the right way. The world can’t afford to ignore this opportunity,” says John Kornerup Bang, Head of Globalization Programme for WWF.

The WWF report outlines four areas for focus: 204 million tons from increased efficiency in industrial processes and providing significant reductions in the use of energy and raw materials across industries; 1,024 million tons by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels in the transportation sector; 668 million tons with a new infrastructure that replaces fossil materials with biomass in the creation of products from plastics to diapers; and 633 million tons from reusing waste material for the production of energy and materials.

The report comes as a Reuters report on Novozymes suggests that the company is focusing on leading carbon polluter China for growth that will revive the company’s strong annual growth rates after a slowdown in the 2008-09 recession.

Executive vice-chairman Thomas Nagy told Reuters that “biofuel holds a lot of promise for us in China, particularly second-generation biofuels. If something like 10 percent of the Chinese fuel market could become renewable, then we hope to take a good share of that. We have not been resistant to crisis. Our customers have slowed down and everybody has been destocking. We have not changed the direction of the company, the ambition of the company or our basic strategy, but we have realised it is a little harder than we expected eight to ten months ago.”

The 24-page policy paper: Industrial biotechnology – more than green fuel in a dirty economy? can be downloaded here.

The detailed technical report GHG Emission Reductions With Industrial Biotechnology: Assessing the Opportunities, which provides the analysis and background for the conclusions, is downloadable here.

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