Global Change Biology Bioenergy, a journal that is published twice-a-month, and which concentrates on issues related to biological sciences and the manufacture of bio-fuels from algae, plants, and wastes, chart outs a structure for assessing the production of biofuels and to deal with the ethical issues related to manufacture of biofuels.
Professor Joyce Tait, Scientific Adviser to the Innogen Centre at Edinburgh University and Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels, has spelled out the proposal of the Council in formulating an all inclusive ethical standard for the manufacture of biofuels. The proposed criteria will deal with six ethical issues that are related to the manufacture of biofuels such as environmental protection, security to human rights, reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and fair trade. The council asserts that aggressive steps to achieve biofuel energy targets without addressing the mentioned ethical issues will only bring more ecological damages and infringe human rights.
According to Professor Tait, though biofuels are considered to be the only substitute for other transport fuels such as diesel and petrol, the presently followed government policies and the set targets for the use of biofuels have back-lashed severely in developing countries. In those countries, it triggered deforestation and shifting of local people to different locations. He has mooted an advanced strategy that studies the broader effects of such biofuel production.
Professor Tait on behalf of Nuffield Council has recommended implementing an all-inclusive ethical standard through a certification strategy for acceptance all over the world. He has also suggested that such rules can be deployed as a yardstick for comparable products and technologies.
Source: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/