Another Inconvenient Truth: Biofuels are not the answer to climate or fuel crisis says Oxfam
Oxfam International Press Release
25 June 2008
Today's biofuel policies are not solving the climate or fuel crises but are instead contributing to food insecurity and inflation, hitting poor people hardest, according to a new report by international agency Oxfam.
In today's report "Another Inconvenient Truth ", Oxfam calculates that rich country biofuel policies have dragged more than 30 million people into poverty, according to evidence that biofuels have already contributed up to 30% to the global rise in food prices.
"Biofuel policies are actually helping to accelerate climate change and deepen poverty and hunger. Rich countries' demands for more biofuels in their transport fuels are causing spiralling production and food inflation," said report author, Oxfam's biofuel policy adviser Rob Bailey .
"If the fuel value for a crop exceeds its food value, then it will be used for fuel instead. Thanks to generous subsidies and tax breaks, that is exactly what is happening. Grain reserves are now at an all-time low."
Rich countries must stop and revise their policies now. "The evidence about their damage is overwhelming," Bailey said. Even in poor countries where biofuels may offer some reward, the potential costs are severe and they should proceed with caution.
Rich countries are supporting their own biofuel production through targets, subsidies, tax breaks and tariffs. This has been described as a new "tax on food".
"Rich countries spent up to $15 billion last year supporting biofuels. That's the same amount of money that Oxfam says is needed to help poor people cope with the food crisis," said Bailey.
"This is a regressive tax that hits poor people the hardest because their food bills represent a greater share of their income," he said.
The biofuels being grown today are not an effective answer to climate change, Oxfam says. Instead, biofuels are taking over agricultural land and forcing farming to expand into lands that are important carbon sinks, like forests and wetlands. This triggers the release of carbon from soil and vegetation that will take decades to repay.
Oxfam estimates that by 2020, as a result of the EU's 10% biofuel target, carbon emissions from changing the use of land to produce palm oil could be almost 70 times greater than the annual savings the EU hopes to achieve from biofuels by then.
Bailey says that biofuels will not address rich countries' need for fuel security. "Even if the entire world's supply of grains and sugars were converted into ethanol tomorrow - in the process giving us all even less to eat - we would only be able to replace 40% of our petrol and diesel consumption," Bailey said. "Rich country governments should not use biofuels as an excuse to avoid urgent decisions about how to reduce their unfettered demand for petrol and diesel," he said.
In developing countries, Oxfam says that biofuels could provide a sustainable energy alternative for poor people in marginalized areas - but that the potential economic, social and environmental costs can be severe, and countries should proceed with caution. In Mali for example, bioenergy projects provide clean renewable energy sources to poor women and men in rural areas. But, as the main plank of a policy to substitute transport fuel by rich nations, biofuels are failing.
"Biofuels were meant to be an alternative to oil - a secure source of new transport energy. But rich countries have designed their policies too much for the benefit of domestic interest groups. They are making climate change worse, not better, they are stealing crops and land away from food production, and they are destroying millions of livelihoods in the process." said Bailey.
Oxfam Ireland is asking the Irish government to support the dropping of the proposed EU target to meet 10% of transport energy needs from 'renewable sources' - in practice biofuels - by 2020*.
'To support a huge increase in biofuels use when we're already seeing the damaging impacts of increased demand would be hugely irresponsible. It may have once looked like a good idea but clearly now is the time to rethink and drop the target' says Colin Roche, Oxfam Ireland 's Policy and Advocacy Co Ordinator
* Renewable Energy Sources Directive
Notes to Editor:
1. The humanitarian situation in eastern Congo is one of the worst in the world. Over 5 million people have died since the war started in 1998, the majority from lack of access to food or health care. It is the deadliest war in the world today. Rape is endemic. According to the UN, 14,200 rape cases were registered between 2005 and 2007 in South Kivu province but only 287 were taken to court.
2. A Congo peace deal was signed in 2003; this brought peace to much of the country, but the Kivu provinces continued to be embroiled in deadly conflict. In January 2008, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the government and 22 armed groups in the town of Goma following weeks of negotiations. Following the signing, the Congolese government set up the Amani ('peace') programme for eastern Congo, and appointed the widely-respected Abbe Malu Malu, a catholic priest, to spearhead the efforts towards peace.
3. In 2006, despite the ongoing violence, Congo held historic elections that for the first time allowed people to vote freely for their leaders. Turnout was 70 percent. The European Union was instrumental in the successful running of these elections.
4. Oxfam Ireland's Humanitarian Co ordinator Michael O Riordan has just returned from North Kivu
"Another Inconvenient Truth" makes the following key recommendations:
Rich countries should:
- Introduce a freeze on implementing new biofuel mandates
- Urgently revise existing biofuel mandates that deepen poverty and accelerate climate change
- Dismantle subsidies and tax exemptions for biofuels
- Reduce import tariffs on biofuels
Developing countries should:
- Proceed with extreme caution, planning for the long-term, avoiding ambitious targets and analysing the economic, environmental and social impacts of biofuels
Companies and investors should:
- Ensure no biofuel project takes place without the free, prior and informed consent of local communities
- Promote access to energy in remote areas
Contact:
ROI: Paul Dunphy, Media and Communications Executive, 01 635 0422, paul.dunphy [at] oxfamireland.org
NI: Phillip Graham, Media and Communications Officer, 028 9089 5959, phillip.graham [at] oxfamireland.org
Oxfam Ireland is an independent member of Oxfam International- a group of thirteen non-governmental agencies dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world.
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