Biofuels 'are not a magic bullet'

Biofuels may play a role in curbing climate change, says Britain's Royal Society, but may create environmental problems unless implemented with care.

In a new report, the Society suggests current EU and UK policies are not guaranteed to reduce emissions.
It advocates more research into all aspects of biofuel production and use.
The report says the British government should use financial incentives to ensure companies adopt cutting-edge and carbon-efficient technologies.
"Biofuels could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, both in Britain and globally," said Professor John Pickett from Rothamsted Research, who chaired the Royal Society's study.

"But it would be disastrous if biofuel production made further inroads into biological diversity and natural ecosystems.
"We must not create new environmental or social problems in our efforts to deal with climate change."

Climate 'could devastate crops'

Climate change could cause severe crop losses in South Asia and southern Africa over the next 20 years, a study in the journal Science says.

The findings suggest southern Africa could lose more than 30% of its main crop, maize, by 2030.
In South Asia losses of many regional staples, such as rice, millet and maize could top 10%, the report says.
The effects in these two regions could be catastrophic without effective measures to adapt to climate change.
The majority of the world's one billion poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Yet, said lead author David Lobell, it is also "the human enterprise most vulnerable to climate change".
The researcher, from Stanford University in California, US, added: "Understanding where these climate threats will be greatest, for what crops and on what timescales, will be central to our efforts at fighting hunger and poverty over the coming decades."