October 1st, 2008

Growing calls for moratorium on biofuel (agrofuel) monocultures

Agrofuel targets in Europe and the US are already having serious impacts on food security and local communities in Africa, Asia and South America.

As EU member states argue over biofuel target levels, greenhouse gas emission levels and sustainability criteria, the impacts on the global south increase every day, as vast tracts of land are designated for oil palm, soya, sugarcane, jatropha.

Agrofuels are a pretext for land-grabbing. Such land is often described as marginal, idle, degraded, sleeping, neglected or underused, yet it may be a vital resource to local communities for food (especially when crops fail), fuel, medicine and building materials.

Increasingly, social movements, citizen groups, scientists and many parliamentarians are calling for a moratorium on of agrofuel monocultures.

Today, many organisations from around the world called on EU member countries deciding their positions in advance of another round of negotiations on renewable energy to drop all agrofuel targets and to install a moratorium on the promotion of agrofuels and agro-energy.