Martin, Paul; Gal, Elodie Le --- "Unpacking the complexities of biofuel policy" [2016] ELECD 731; in Le Bouthillier, Yves; Cowie, Annette; Martin, Paul; McLeod-Kilmurray, Heather (eds), "The Law and Policy of Biofuels" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 315

Book Title: The Law and Policy of Biofuels

Editor(s): Le Bouthillier, Yves; Cowie, Annette; Martin, Paul; McLeod-Kilmurray, Heather

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782544548

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Unpacking the complexities of biofuel policy

Author(s): Martin, Paul; Gal, Elodie Le

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

“Path dependence” is an important concept to help to understand the ways in which societies respond to new challenges. It suggests that established practices or policy traditions will generally be the basis for deciding what to do when faced with new challenges and opportunities. It can therefore be expected that policy-makers and lawyers will approach the governance of biofuels on the basis of how previous challenges involving energy industries, natural-resource-based enterprises and sustainability have been addressed. We can expect that issues will be viewed through the lens of energy security and climate change, and that strategies will involve a mixture of the command-and-control and market-based approaches that have been generally used (with varying degrees of success). While biofuels governance shares many characteristics with other natural resource management (NRM) and energy issues, contemporary biofuels raise unique governance challenges that are likely to require innovative institutional arrangements. These challenges are the focus of this chapter. The special characteristics of biofuels as a governance problem include fundamental disagreements about how to manage the business, financial, social and environmental risks associated with biofuel production and use; the diversity of technologies and business models within the generic terms “biofuels” or “bioenergy” (or other similar terms); the magnitude and rate of development of the economic opportunity and the industry; and (as a result of these characteristics) the deficiencies in the capacity of government to deliver what would be required for effective biofuel governance models.