题 目：Biofuels: Good Intentions but Bad Outcomes for Consumers, the Environment, and Perhaps Even Farmers
报告人：Richard J. Sexton 教授 （美国加州大学戴维斯分校）
时 间：2026年4月3日 星期五 10:00-11:30
报告地点：北京大学王克桢楼107会议室
报告人简介：
Richard J. Sexton教授是美国加州大学戴维斯分校（UCDavis）农业与资源经济系资深杰出教授（现为Distinguished Professor Emeritus）、前任系主任，美国农业与应用经济学会（AAEA）会士、前任主席，曾担任美国农业经济学杂志（AJAE）Co-Editor（1998-2020）。Sexton教授的主要研究领域为应用微观经济学、产业组织和农产品市场营销，研究成果发表在American Economic Review, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics等国际权威期刊。
报告内容：
The United States passed legislation in 2005 to mandate 10% ethanol content in motor fuels. Other countries have enacted their own biofuel mandates. Bio-based diesel fuel production has also expanded rapidly in response to policies. A key goal of these standards is to reduce emissions because biofuels burn cleaner than fossil fuels. However, use of substantial agricultural lands to produce feedstock for biofuels has raised food prices and caused expansion of the land base in agriculture, known as indirect land-use change or ILUC. Emissions associated with ILUC can reduce or eliminate emission benefits associated with combusting biofuels. This presentation chronicles the evolution of biofuel mandates and their impacts on food prices and carbon emissions. It presents results of a study of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia to plant palm plantations. Policies to support bio-diesel mandates have caused 1.7 million hectares of forest loss in these countries. The carbon intensity associated with this ILUC likely exceeds that associated with combusting fossil diesel. Finally, the presentation will argue that higher farm prices from biofuel mandates are transitory due to rapid global expansion in production of biofuel feedstocks and their close substitutes that quickly reduces prices and exposes farmers to substantially greater price and income volatility.