Large-scale
biofuels: Good for the power, bad for the
people and the climate
The modalities
of biofuel consumption and production are already causing a negative
impact on food security, rural livelihoods, forests and other
ecosystems, and these negative impacts are expected to accumulate
rapidly. Large-scale, export-oriented production of biofuel requires
large-scale monocultures of trees, sugarcane, corn, oil palm,
soy and other crops. These monocultures already form the number
one cause of rural depopulation and deforestation worldwide.
Furthermore,
the claim that biodiesel is 'carbon neutral' is disputed since
it doesn't take into account how, for example, oil palm plantations
are developed. Realistic estimates show that making biofuels from
energy crops requires more fossil fuel energy than they yield,
and they do not substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions
when all the inputs are accounted for. Also, rainforests, swamp
and peat forests, which are important carbon sinks, are being
cleared in order to establish oil palm plantations.
However, the
European Union is promoting the use of biofuels as an energy source
for transport. The EU has set itself a target of increasing the
use of biofuels in energy consumption to 5.75% by 2010. The European
Commission is now pressing member states to fulfil their commitments
under the 2003 Biofuels Directive. The agriculture council of
20 Feb 2006 held a first policy debate on the biofuels strategy
and the EU's biomass action plan. The advantage for these countries
is that biofuels like bioethanol and biodiesel have lower prices
than oil. Another plus for European farmers is that domestic production
of biofuels could offer new income and employment opportunities
after the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy.
In Europe,
biodiesel is used in Germany, France and Austria in varying concentrations.
In Germany, there are more than 1,000 filling stations providing
biodiesel. The first German 'biorefinery' is to be built in Emden,
with financing from a Dutch syndicate. The plant is intended to
turn 430,000 tonnes of palm oil, probably from Indonesia, into
more than 400 million litres of biodiesel.
Demand for
crude palm oil to generate electricity has increased 400,000 tonnes
this year in the Netherlands, of which 250,000 tonnes will be
imported. The electricity company, BIOX bv, is reportedly planning
to build four new generators using palm oil. The company intends
to sell this palm oil-based electricity to several EU countries.
In the United
States, biofuels are welcomed as a way to help reduce the country’s
dependence on oil produced abroad. Biofuels combine patriotism
with economic self-interest: farmers love it because biodiesel
and ethanol are brewed from agricultural commodities, helping
drive up farm-gate prices; and Republican
senators love it because federal tax subsidies keep their voting
farmers happy.
On quite an
opposite stand, in Southern countries, the production of biofuel
crops is already having great environmental and social impacts
which will become worse in case the North-driven push for new
energy sources gain ground. An alliance of human rights and environmental
NGOs are campaigning against European countries' use of fuel made
from palm oil at the expense of forest ecosystems. In an April
statement entitled 'No to Deforestation Diesel!', over thirty
German, Austrian and Swiss groups warn that a palm oil-fuelled
biodiesel boom would repeat the pattern of forest destruction
caused by the rapid growth of Indonesia's pulp and paper industry.
The groups
argue that a fundamentally different approach to energy consumption
is required, rather than merely replacing oil with biofuels. This
entails promoting of public transport over private car and air
traffic, more energy conservation measures and more energy from
renewable sources such as solar and wind power. The groups are
calling for strict criteria to be applied to the use of biofuel
raw materials including: no conversion of primary forests for
plantations; no burning to clear forests for plantations; no human
rights violations or police or military operations; no certification
of palm oil plantations, as a monoculture based on palm oil cannot
be cultivated in an ecologically sustainable way and generally
leads to problems rather than any enduring benefits for local
people; yes to the promotion of organic farming without the use
of artificial fertilizers or agricultural toxins; yes to a promotion
of agricultural smallholdings in the cultivating countries. The
statement also calls for customary rights and land rights to be
respected and full compliance with ratified international agreements
relating to indigenous peoples, biodiversity, workers' rights,
etc in countries cultivating biofuel crops.
Furthermore,
more NGOs, Indigenous Peoples Organizations and farmer’s movements
called upon the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change COP 12 held in Nairobi on 6 - 17 November 2006 to
immediately suspend all subsidies and other forms of inequitable
support for the import and export of biofuels.
They claimed:
“There is nothing green or sustainable to imported biofuel. Instead
of destroying the lands and livelihoods of local communities and
Indigenous Peoples in the South through yet another form of colonialism,
we call upon Northern countries to recognize their responsibility
for destroying the planet’s climate system, to reduce their energy
consumption to sustainable levels, to pay the climate debt they
have created by failing to do so until now and to dramatically
increase investment in solar energy and sustainable wind energy”.
Article based
on: “Biodiesel and the expansion of plantations”, Down to Earth,
Newsletter No. 69, May 2006, E-mail: dte@gn.apc.org;
http://dte.gn.apc.org; Resistance
Number 60, Oilwatch Network Bulletin, April 2006, E-mail: info@oilwatch.org,
http://www.oilwatch.org/doc/boletin/bole60en.pdf;
“Biofuels: A Disaster in the Making”, alert to the Conference
of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/CCC/Nairobi/Disaster_Making.html
