Dear Professor Smith
Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry you feel we have not dealt satisfactorily with your research in our Review. I would like to make the following general comments:
The Review has been well received in considering the current controversial nature of Biofuels, and the overall conclusions, that we should take indirect effects into account; be more cautious about targets and conduct more research, have been generally accepted.
It is important to remember, however, that the Review was never intended to be the last word on biofuels, rather the start of a process to define truly sustainable renewable fuels. We received often conflicting information and the academic research and discussion needs to continue.
We are unsure how this research will be co-ordinated and funded but the aim must be to obtain a global consensus between all interested parties - an extremely challenging task. We hope that the UK and Europe will lead on this.
With regard to your specific comments, when your paper first appeared as an Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion paper, it was the focus of considerable media attention and widely cited. We regret that North Energy were unfamiliar with the open peer review process operated by ACP, and examined only the initial discussion paper, and that therefore alterations made to the final reviewed paper were therefore not fully considered in the Gallagher Review. However, we believe that the core content of the two papers was essentially the same, and that North Energy's conclusion, that your paper does not represent a reliable method for quantifying nitrous oxide emissions as part of a lifecycle analysis for biofuels other than in exceptional conditions, is robust.
I feel that this, at the moment, is a legitimate area of difference between responsible scientists which can and should be resolved as we carry out further work on the definitive standards for sustainable biofuels.
With regard to your last point of publication, we will be issuing shortly details of the responses we have received to the Review, with the permission of those who have commented. I hope you will give permission for your correspondence to be included and I look forward to further discussion as we seek, with a wide range of stakeholders, to define truly sustainable biofuels for the future.
Yours sincerely
Professor Ed Gallagher
Last Modified: 13 Feb 2009