Biofuels under the spotlight: The state of assessment and potential for integration

Alongside substantial biofuel development over the past decade, a vast number of assessments have also been produced. These have had an important influence upon biofuel discourse, policy and development, but they also vary in their methods, scope and quality. This makes it difficult to identify and evaluate assessments and to coordinate knowledge in a useful way. We applied a systematic evaluative framework to a set of ‘key’ assessments and conducted a workshop with expert producers and users to consider the quality and value of biofuel assessments. It was suggested that a more integrated approach to assessment is needed, perhaps with the establishment of a committee to integrate findings. Such a ‘findings-level’ approach to integration differs from the ‘data-level’ approach often found in the literature, and may present a more appropriate means of integrating knowledge gained in biofuel assessments to inform policy.