Aircraft, ships and heavy commercial vehicles will continue to rely on combustion engines for decades to come. Whether the electrification of the global car fleet will succeed within a reasonable time frame – not only in industrialised countries, but also in the countries of the Global South – is still very much open to question. Climate-friendly fuels will therefore play a major role in the future – they have to. Biogenic fuels from non-edible oils (e.g. jatropha) have enormous potential. The fuel requirements of all air traffic and a quarter of the world’s diesel vehicles could be met with the help of plants that grow on barren soil. There is more than enough degraded land that is unsuitable for conventional agriculture. This could result in a triple benefit for emerging and developing countries: climate protection through CO₂reduction, economic development through export revenues, and employment through labour-intensive agriculture.
See the paper by Hans Jürgen Wernicke (in german – translation coming soon)
