Are Biofuels Another Inconvenient Truth?
Biofuels have been widely touted as a solution to redressing the world’s overdependence on oil and a significant part to resolving the climatic crisis particularly in the developed world. But according to new report by Oxfam, the fascination with biofuels may not be a solution to either the climatic or oil crisis and is instead fueling a third crisis: food.
According to the report, interest in biofuels has intoxicated rich country governments to the extent that they are foregoing difficult but urgent decisions about how to reduce consumption of oil.
Sadly, the cumulative effect of the over-dependence on biofuels as a solution to the energy crisis is being felt in developing countries.
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“The most serious costs of these policies – deepening poverty and hunger, environmental degradation, and accelerating climate change – are being ‘dumped’ on developing countries,” states the report titled “Another Inconvenient Truth: How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change”
While biofuels may offer some genuine development opportunities for developing countries the potential economic, social, and environmental costs are severe. So developing countries need to ensure that the production of biofuels caters to the needs of local populations without damaging the environment.
The report argues that increasing aggregate demand for agricultural land will drive the expansion of farming into critical carbon sinks such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands, triggering the release of carbon from soils and vegetation that will take decades and in some cases centuries of biofuel production to repay, at a time when emissions need to peak and fall within the next 10 to 15 years.
“Consumption of oil in rich countries is so huge that for biofuels to be a significant alternative requires massive amounts of agricultural production,” states the report.
According to the report, if the entire world supply of carbohydrates (starch and sugar crops) was converted to ethanol, this would only be able to replace at 40 per cent of global petrol consumption. Global oilseed production would be unable even to reach a 10 per cent share of diesel consumption.
The focus on biofuels has also seen an increase in the conversion of agricultural cropping with crops that favour biofuel production becoming more lucrative for farmers across the world..
Thirty per cent of price increases are attributable to biofuels, suggesting biofuels have endangered the livelihoods of nearly 100 million people and dragged over 30 million into poverty, says the report.
Oxfam asserts that the true attraction of ethanol and biodiesel for rich-country governments is that it is an avenue for continued support to agriculture.
The Oxfam report calls on rich countries urgently to dismantle support and incentives for biofuels in order to avoid further deepening poverty and accelerating climate change.
Specifically, states the report, rich countries should: introduce a freeze on the implementation of further biofuel mandates, and carry out an urgent revision of existing targets that deepen poverty and accelerate climate change; dismantle subsidies and tax exemptions for biofuels and reduce import tariffs; tackle climate change and fuel security through safe and cost-effective measures, prioritising regulation to enforce ambitious vehicle-efficiency improvements.
On the other hand, developing countries should prioritise bioenergy projects that provide clean renewable energy sources to poor men and women in rural areas – these are unlikely to be ethanol or biodiesel projects.
In addition, developing countries should consider the costs as well as the benefits involved in biofuel strategies: the financial costs of support, the opportunity costs of alternative agriculture and poverty reduction strategies, and social and environmental costs, states the report.
Photo Credit: bjamin at Flickr on a Creative Commons License
So lets talk about the real problem….OVER POPULATION!!!
Bio fuels don’t compete directly with human crops. They compete with animal feed — feed corn and soybeans are the primary sources of cow feed in the US, and because they are highly available commodities, that’s why they are targeted for the first generation of bio fuels. We’d be much better off burning the corn and soy instead of eating beef, because producing beef and dairy products takes 17 times the resources of a vegetarian diet.
Biofuels are indeed not the solution they have been touted to be. The food dynamic is one serious problem, another that is sometimes forgotten is their environmental impact. The situation varies of course depending on the type of crop being cultivated, but popular variants thus far have sometimes lead to destructive agricultural practices that deplete topsoil and overuse fertilizers and pesticides (See: The Great Biofuel Hoax of 2008.
We can plant all of Africa to grow bio-fuels, but if Americans want it they are going to have to give something in exchange to get it - and right now,they don’t have much to offer! Maybe a lifestyle change is in the offing. When we can’t afford oil, how in hell are we going to pay for bio-fuels? The truth is America is on the verge of bankruptcy brought on by the Bush bunch - on wars we cannot afford, on nation building in Iraq we cannot afford - to appease the Saudis! Poor old Obama, he is going to be left holding the bag! and at the footsteps of the great depression - no wonder the Republicans put McCain forward, they are ‘throwing ‘ the election because they have seen the books and see the writing on the wall!
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