Tropical countries are able to produce biofuels more efficiently than temperate countries, meaning that biofuels offer significant opportunities for poor people. They can create new markets for farmers and employment for agricultural labourers, or displace oil imports, or generate electricity in remote areas. In order for these opportunities to materialise, producer governments, companies, and importing governments need policies that are both sustainable and that help poor people. In the absence of such policies, biofuels present more in the way of threats than opportunities for poor people, who are at risk from land-grabbing, exploitation, and deteriorating food security.

The EU recently announced that ten per cent of all member states' transport fuels must come from biofuels. This will have to be met in part by imports from developing countries. However, the Commission, which is drafting the legislation, has so far given no indication that it will also include safeguards to protect poor people. The combined effect of this is to send out a signal that biofuels produced at the expense of poor people's livelihoods will be an acceptable means of tackling carbon emissions that are produced by transport within the EU. This is not acceptable; the costs of emissions-reduction policies in the EU must not be borne by poor people in developing countries. Oxfam is therefore calling on the EU to implement clear and comprehensive environmental and social standards for biofuels. Failing this, the 10 per cent target should be scrapped.

Read Oxfam's new briefing note on biofuels here.