What Influences the Public Acceptance of Biofuels?

The findings have important policy implications for the public acceptance of biofuels, according to the European Commission DG for the Environment.

Although biofuels are not new, their use remains quite low in several western countries and detail on public opinion about biofuels is still not well established, the report says.

There are very few previous studies in this area and these have produced very varied results.

Furthermore, no research has examined the links between social acceptance of biofuels and socioeconomic variables, such as age, education and income.

The study aimed to provide greater insight into this area and explore an important measure of acceptance in terms of willingness to pay.

The research took place in Thrace in North-Eastern Greece, a region which is suitable for biofuel production.

Researchers conducted 571 face-to-face interviews with members of the public in busy spots in the three main cities.

The interviews covered views on climate change, energy dependency and biofuels, and collected socioeconomic data.

The vast majority (90.7 per cent) believed that climatic changes are related to the consumption of fossil fuels.

Just over three-quarters believed that energy saving should precede the use of alternative sources of energy and only a quarter believed that priority should be given to biofuels over other forms of renewable energy sources.

Half (49.9 per cent) thought that biofuels are an effective solution against climate change.

Older respondents were more likely to worry about energy dependency and to believe that energy saving is preferable to using renewable energy.

People with a low education (those who were illiterate or primary school graduates, with no more than six years of education) were less conscious of the need for energy saving and less likely to support the use of other renewable energies over biofuels.

A possible explanation is that those with low education are closer to the agricultural sector, which stands to benefit from biofuels, but it could also reflect a lack of knowledge about the disadvantages of biofuels.

More than 80 per cent of respondents who owned vehicles were willing to use biofuels and 44.8 per cent were willing to pay an additional price of €0.06 per litre on top of market fuel price.

Those with a higher education are more likely to pay this extra amount as are people who trust research organisations to manage the introduction of biofuels.

Participants did not appear willing to pay more if government or industry managed the introduction.

Overall the research demonstrated that there is a lack of information about biofuels within the public sphere.

Only 23.8 per cent of participants knew the difference between bioethanol and biodiesel.

The researchers believe that if it is necessary to introduce biofuels, education campaigns in Greece could highlight the positive impact of biofuels on the farming community and research organisations and universities, rather than government and industry, should play an important role in increasing acceptance.

Source:
^{Savvanidou, E., Zervas, E. & Tsagarakis, K.P. (2010). Public acceptance of biofuels. Energy Policy. 38: 3482-3488.}