The sustainability of sugarcane-ethanol systems in Guatemala: Land, labour and law

• Published in: Biomass & bioenergy 2015-11, Vol.82, p.94-100
• Main Author: Tomei, Julia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biofuel governance; Certification; European union; Guatemala; Sugarcane-ethanol systems; Sustainability
• ISSN: 0961-9534; 1873-2909
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2015.05.018

Since 2010, Guatemala has been exporting ethanol, principally to European markets. This means that Guatemalan biofuel has been certified sustainable, although this is deeply contested with NGO reports drawing attention to the negative impacts of ‘agrofuels’, particularly for marginalised communities. Guatemala therefore provides an excellent case study for examining not only the impacts of increased global demand for biofuels, but also whether sustainability, as conceptualised by the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive, can capture those issues that are salient to the Guatemalan context. Drawing on more than eighty qualitative, in-depth interviews, this paper finds that the bloc's governance framework for biofuels fails to capture many of the issues that matter most to local people in Guatemala, namely land access, trade unions and compliance with the law. This paper argues that the current framework therefore runs the risk of exacerbating the plight of Guatemala's already marginalised rural communities. •This paper investigates whether the EU's biofuels sustainability framework captures issues salient to the Guatemalan context.•Ethanol produced in Guatemala has been certified sustainable by the ISCC.•But certification overlooks issues of land access, trade unions and compliance with the law.•The current framework risks exacerbating the plight of Guatemala's marginalised rural communities.