The International Energy Agency is predicting that biofuels could provide almost one third of all fuel used across the transport sector.
The report, supplied to the Group of Eight (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and US) Energy Ministers by the IEA, states that with the right support and policies in place, biofuel supply could take 27% of the total transport fuel market by 2050.
The forecast predicts an overall growth in all biofuel usage from 55m tons of oil equivalent in 2011, to 750m tons in the next 50 years. Viewed as a key method of reducing CO2 emissions, if the prediction is correct, the transport industry could slash its emissions output by 2.1 giga-tons of CO2.
To achieve this figure, the IEA calculated a investment of between $11trn and $13trn is need over the next 40 years with a requirement of some 3bn tons of annual biomass production levels by 2050. This was accompanied by a warning that this volume of biomass production could impact on food production which should be safeguarded.
The main biofuel markets will initially come from the developed countries, with the balance shifting to 70% demand from China, India, Brazil and other developing nations by 2050.