Resumen de Biogas production and society: evidence from Germany
K. Zander, I. Christoph-Schulz, D. Bürgelt
Biogas production has expanded tremendously in recent years and has become an important feature of modern agriculture. Within this development public subsidies have played a major role by making biogas production from raw plants highly competitive. Social acceptance should be important in contemporary political decision making: that is why we decided to ask people for their perceptions of and their attitudes towards biogas production in agriculture. We used a two-step approach, starting with the conduction of focus groups discussions in three German cities, followed by an online survey. The content of the online survey was based on the outcome of the focus group discussions. By means of factor and cluster analyses we classified the respondents into homogenous groups with regard to their attitudes towards biogas production. The results show that citizens� knowledge of biogas production and of its possible consequences is low. Generally, the production of biogas is well accepted by German citizens. They acknowledge biogas production to be a form of renewable energy, which contributes to overall sustainability goals. But, people are concerned about competition of biomass production for electricity and feed and food production, having in mind that hunger is an important issue worldwide. According to the test person�s opinion organic waste should be preferred over fresh biomass. In contrast to what had been expected from earlier media reporting, neither changes in the landscape due to high shares of maize nor significant annoyances of people living close to biogas facilities caused by noise, smell or dirty roads were feared. The factor and cluster analyses resulted in the following groups of people: �Opponents�, �Indifferents� and �Supporters� of biogas production. The results of our research confirm earlier research outcomes on German citizens� attitudes in favour of fostering the use of renewable energies. Consistently, people also support the use of biogas. But, people are concerned about the likely competition of land used for the production energy plants with that used for food and feed. Considering that biogas production from energy plants causes quite high CO2-abatement costs, resolute political action towards replacing energy plants in biogas production is urgently needed.
