By Prensa Latina
Madrid : Bio-fuel, far from being a clean choice to fight global warming, emits more carbon dioxide and denudes vast forestlands, a German scientist has said, suggesting solar energy as a credible option.
Chemistry Nobel laureate of 1988 Hertmut Michel told Spanish daily El Pais that large tracts of forests in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and in Africa were being burnt down, releasing a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the environment.
Besides, large areas of forestlands were being diverted into soybeans cultivation for biomass for fuels.
Michel has proposed an immediate amendment to the European Union bylaw that makes it mandatory for 5.75 percent fossil fuel vehicles to change over to bio-fuel by 2010.
While insisting on the use of renewable energy sources Michel warned that bio-fuel also emits CO2 since half its energy is of fossil origin.
He suggested that an optimal use of solar energy could be one way to avoid the cataclysmic greenhouse effect because photovoltaic cells are 20 percent more energy efficient than bio-fuel.