Fact Sheets

Biotechnology and Biofuels: Lowering Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Lowering harmful emissions is one of the most important components of our collective effort to ensure a healthy environment for future generations. The nation's transportation sector is one of the largest emitters of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the planet's changing climate. As the nation's population continues to grow, lowering vehicle emissions will become ever more essential.

While the vehicles we drive today pollute less than those of prior generations, new innovations are needed to move America towards more sustainable and environmentally-sound technologies. Some of the most exciting research comes from the use of biotechnology to develop biofuels—low emission, renewable fuels which are produced from plants.

• Biotechnology: Boosting production of clean biofuels – Biotechnology helped increase crop yields by 8.34 billion pounds in 2005 alone, according to experts.1 Boosting farm yields helps to produce both more food and environmental-friendly biofuels on the same amount of land.
• Sequestering carbon emissions in the field – Carbon sequestration can occur when carbon dioxide (CO₂) is captured in terrestrial ecosystems.2 Increasing biofuels production through biotechnology and other means will lower overall emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Biofuels are environmentally healthier than other fuels in part because plants absorb CO₂–-the greenhouse gas scientists say is responsible for global climate change—and biofuels produced from biotech-enhanced plants can be grown with no-till farming practices, which also facilitates carbon sequestration.3
• Lower emissions from your vehicle's tailpipe – Biofuels are already much cleaner than gasoline, cutting emissions of greenhouse gases by 18-29% over gasoline. Last year, biofuels cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 8 million tons, equivalent to the emissions of 1.2 million vehicles.4

Biotechnology: Contributing to Lower Emissions & Sustainable Energy

Agricultural biotechnology already contributes to boosting the production of biofuels that offer environmental benefits. But researchers and scientists believe today's generation of biofuels are just the beginning. They are developing biocatalysts—enzymes, yeast and bacteria that could break down almost any organic matter—such as grasses, cornstalks or agricultural waste—to produce "biomass" that could be turned into super-low emission fuel.

In the future a cornfield in Nebraska or Iowa could generate greater quantities of corn for human consumption and livestock feed, and the stalks of that same crop—which are not used today—could be transformed into biofuel. Biofuels produced from switchgrass and other organic matter could also be grown on marginal farmlands, leaving our most productive acres for food crops.

Such fuels, produced using biotechnology, could reduce harmful greenhouse gases by as much as 88%.5 Biotech crops are helping move America one step closer to a future of clean and plentiful energy.

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