Climate change and poverty
Biofuels race will hurt poor people
12 November 2007
The EU recently announced that ten per cent of all member states' transport fuels must come from biofuels by 2020.
This has worrying implications for poor people. Tropical countries can produce biofuels more efficiently than temperate countries, so biofuels offer significant opportunities for poor people. They can create new markets for farmers, and employment for agricultural labourers.
However, with no safeguards to protect poor people in place, biofuels present more in the way of threats than opportunities, as poor farmers risk being forced off their land as industrial farmers cash in on the biofuel bonanza. To make it worse, valuable rainforest is being cleared to make way for fuel crops like palm oil.
The EU must set social and environmental standards for biofuels. If it fails to do this, the 10 per cent target should be scrapped.
The biofuels race seems set to continue. In late October, UK MPs voted in favour of the government's proposed 'Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation' (RTFO). This legislation requires all petrol stations and fuel suppliers in the UK to ensure that five per cent of the fuel they sell comes from biofuels.
It's time for political leaders to wake up to the humanitarian impact of biofuels now.
Posted by: Oxfam climate change team
Comments
CG | November 19, 2007 11:10 AM
This is a great article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/27/MNG1VDF6EM1.DTL
Ethanol, touted as an alternative fuel of the future, may eat up far more energy during its creation than it winds up giving back, according to research by a UC Berkeley scientist that raises questions about the nation's move toward its widespread use.
A clean-burning fuel produced from renewable crops like corn and sugarcane, ethanol has long been a cornerstone of some national lawmakers' efforts to clear the air and curb dependence on foreign oil. California residents use close to a billion gallons of the alcohol-based fuel per year.
But in a recent issue of the journal Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, UC Berkeley geoengineering professor Tad Patzek argued that up to six times more energy is used to make ethanol than the finished fuel actually contains.
CG | November 19, 2007 10:16 AM
Doesn't Ethanol production require 3 times as much energy that it eventually gives off?
The whole thing really is set up to enrich the big land-owning agri-businesses in the EU and the USA.
Though a side effect is that it is mopping up excess corn/wheat production, thereby stopping this being dumped on the world market. This is turn is helping to push the price for foodstuff up which surely is good news for smaller farmers in poor countries, as they can earn a better living because of the higher prices.