Opportunities for biofuel sustainable development in Bulgaria

The introduction of Directive 2003/30 EC of the European Union (EU) on biofuels had the ambitious goal to both reduce greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and create new jobs in rural areas. The challenge lies in the availability of premises to convert biomass in energy, which depends on the availability of land. Thus an opportunity has been created on the EU market for biofuels, offering to each Member State with an excess of agricultural land, to benefit from both environmental and economic point of view. In this paper, the authors investigate whether it would be profitable for Bulgarian SMEs, operating in the agricultural sector, to shift into such a 'green business' and whether this shift could contribute in diversifying the role of agriculture by stimulating the development of new sources of income and by ensuring long-term competitiveness.biofuels directive; Bulgaria; input-output analysis; greenhouse gas emissions; job creation; rural areas; biomass conversion; energy; land availability; EU; European Union; agricultural land; agriculture; farming; environmental factors; environment; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; green businesses; diversification; income sources; long-term competitiveness; economic analyses; EC Directive 2003/30; renewable fuels; transport; sustainability; sustainable development; sustainable economy.