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October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Biofuels and their impacts on Global Climate, People and
Forests
Biofuelwatchwww.biofuelwatch.org.uk
introduced by Dr Andrew Boswell, biofuelwatch and UK Green Party councillor on Norfolk County Council
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Summary• The UK RTFO / EU policy context• Public policy debate has been sidelined • Impacts on People & Voices from the
South• Impacts of Ecology• Climate Change background - Agrofuels /
biofuels are accelerating climate change• Certification = no viable answer• Descending the transport emissions curve
- Demand reduction is key
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
The UK RTFO• Renewable Transport Fuels
Obligation (RTFO) mandates for all road fuels:
April 2008 2.5% biofuel by volumeApril 2009 3.75% April 2010 5.0% (EU 5.75%)
Consumers will not be able to buy fuel without biofuel after April 2008
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
US / EU Biofuel Policy – going off the graph
2010 2020
US – 20% by 2020 (4% now)
EU – 10% by 2020 (1% now)
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Agrofuels – no public policy debate
• Even current 1% EU penetration has taken us into ‘downstream’ phase of implementation
• Yet, there has been no consistent or complete scientific and policy scrutiny
• Bypassed by Governments and industry
• Public policy debate is urgently needed – moratorium is needed to facilitate this
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Mega-scale Agrofuel drivers• Government and corporate subsidy and
promotion• Fits “Business as usual” policies and paradigms
– Year-on-year economic growth– Avoid unpopular “demand reduction” politics
• Short term “energy security” fix– Less pressure on Oil hotspots – Mid-East/Iraq– Stabilising Oil price?– EU / US “Oil independence”
• New global mega-industry and infrastructure– agribusiness, biotech, and chemical sectors – refining, tankage and shipping sectors – commodity markets (eg Palm Oil, sugar, corn)
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Agrofuel issues• Greenhouse gas (GHG) balances• Environmental impacts:
Deforestation, loss of habitats / biodiversity, water depletion, soil erosion, chemicals
• Social impacts:Poverty, land grabbing, land conflicts,
human rights, labour, food security and sovereignty
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Recent Publicationshttp://www.grain.org/seedling_files/seed-07-07-en.pdfhttp://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/ABN_Agro.pdfhttp://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/agrofuels_reality_check.pdf
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Impacts on People• Use of bioenergy in rural economies
– Could help – especially women BUT– Large scale monocultures (eg 11,200 people to
be evicted by Sun Biofuels Jatropha plantation in Tanzania)
– Governments welcome in large companies to boost export market
• Land grabbing– Governments allow companies to get around
land laws– Some 2 billion hectares of Southern land up for
recolonisation
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
From African BN document• “In Uganda, there is an apparent failure to
recognise that by encouraging a favourable climate for agrofuels, foreign companies focussed on export are likely to take over the direction of biofuel production” Timothy Byakola, Uganda
• “The most fertile lands, with best access to water are being targeted, even though these lands are already being used for food production by small-scale farmers” Abdallah Mkindee, Tanzania
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
From African BN document• “There seems to be a lack of clarity over
whether investment and targets are aimed at production of biofuels for the Zambian market or for export. It seems that companies such as D1 Oils may be promoting biofuels as a domestic energy strategy, in order to open the door to amenable legislation, while really intending to focus biofuel production on the export market”. Matonga Mundia, Zambia
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Impacts on People• Human rights
– Pesticide use (especially with GM varieties etc)– Deforestation causing health problems– Land conflicts – paramilitaries in Indonesia and
Colombia – Violent evictions and murders
• Displaced peoples– UN warns up 60 million biofuel refugees– Displaced to less than subsistence rural
existence, or to the urban poor in mega cities
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Food vs FuelFAO Agricultural Outlook, July 2007• “increased demand for biofuels is
causing fundamental changes to agricultural markets that could drive up world prices for many farm products”
FAO, September 2007• “Developing countries face serious
social unrest as they struggle to cope with soaring food prices”
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Food vs Fuel• Global prices pushed up
by biofuel demand• Fuel/freight • Low-Income Food-Deficit
countries (LIFDCs) :: Social unrest / food riots
• Feed prices • Huge industry denial• Food sovereignty
– Best land taken for agrofuels
– Even import poor quality food
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
The right to food• The Special Rapporteur also calls the attention of the General
Assembly to two emerging issues: the first is the issue of the potentially grave negative impact of biofuels (or agrofuels) on the right to food. The second is the urgent need to improve protection for people who are fleeing from hunger, famine and starvation in their countries of origin and face numerous human rights violations if they try to cross borders into developed countries.
• The Special Rapporteur is gravely concerned that biofuels will bring hunger in their wake. The sudden, ill-conceived, rush to convert food — such as maize, wheat, sugar and palm oil — into fuels is a recipe for disaster. There are serious risks of creating a battle between food and fuel that will leave the poor and hungry in developing countries at the mercy of rapidly rising prices for food, land and water. If agro-industrial methods are pursued to turn food into fuel, then there are risks that unemployment and violations of the right to food may result, unless specific measures are put in place to ensure that biofuels contribute to the development of small-scale peasant and family farming.
22 August 2007, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler – UN General Assembly
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Ecological Impacts• Massive land use
change– Renton Righelato
and Dominick V. Spracklen, Science, August 2007
– Ecological restoration and forestation would sequester 2-9 more carbon than biofuels
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Crop burning / Forest fires / Soya
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Ecological ImpactsBiodiversity• Biodiversity hotspots hidden by official
gazetting in Malaysia/Indonesia• Biofuel threat to Great Apes highlighted by
Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey and othersSet-aside in EU – creating a gap in
environmental management• 45% of Europe’s butterflies, 80% declines
in bee diversity and 70% declines in the diversity of wild flowers
• France – little bustard,Austrian bird of prey – depend on set-aside for survival
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Hundreds of NGOs in Latin America, Asia
and Africa have spoken out against large-scale biofuel
monocultures.
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
from a declaration by Latin American NGOs
• “We want food sovereignty, not biofuels…While Europeans maintain their lifestyle based on automobile culture, the population of Southern countries will have less and less land for food crops and will loose its food sovereignty…We are therefore appealing to the governments and people of the European Union countries to seek solutions that do not worsen the already dramatic social and environmental situation of the peoples of Latin America, Asia and Africa. “
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Sawit Watch, Indonesian NGO• “Palm oil for biofuels increases social
conflicts and undermines land reform in Indonesia…It is unavoidable that, as a consequence of Europe's biofuels policy, the land rights of indigenous peoples and local communities will be relinquished further, and that food security will be undermined and lands for agricultural purposes and subsistence livelihoods will diminish.”
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria • “It is a push by industry to make
another scramble for Africa, grab the land and continue with business as usual. The industrial bio-energy push to do increased bio-energy demand will be nothing other than an effort at extending the frontiers of neo-colonialism in its continued march on the back of the fabled market forces”
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) • “We can't call this a ‘bio-fuels program’.
We certainly can't call it a ‘bio-diesel program’. Such phrases use the prefix ‘bio-‘ to subtly imply that the energy in question comes from ‘life’ in general. This is illegitimate and manipulative. We need to find a term in every language that describes the situation more accurately, a term like agro-fuel. This term refers specifically to energy created from plant products grown through agriculture.”
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
What emissions drive CC?• Deforestation, agriculture and peat• Anthropogenic energy –only 60%
From Stern
Report
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Arctic Ice 1979-2007
See video at : http://tinyurl.com/28keqr
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Arctic 2007 Summer Ice Melt
Non-linear effect?
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Descending the fossil emissions curve - Demand reduction is key
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
1990 2000 2010 2020
Biofuels being sold at this level – BUT IS THE OPPOSITE
TRUE?
Energy efficiency and energy reduction
Carbon management – use less carbon
Decarbonise – switch from carbon completely
Current EU energy policy
90% carbon emission reduction needed
URGENTLY!
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Do Agrofuels save emissions?• Agrofuel infrastructure is built on
Fossil Fuel infrastructure– Intensive agriculture – fossil fuel based –
fertilisers, farm equipment, Nitrous oxide emissions (300* CO2), soil carbon emissions
– Feedstock transport, shipping, ports– Refining (coal, gas fired plants!) ;
process chemicals
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
N20 needs further study• microbes convert N fertiliser to N2O
– NEW STUDY by Nobel prizewinner Paul Crutzen, August 2007 : 3 to 5 per cent = twice the widely accepted figure of 2 per cent used by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• oilseed rape biodiesel, for example, is up to 70% worse for the climate than fossil fuel diesel (also corn ethanol)
• UK and EU Biofuels policy and certification schemes in scientific doubt
• N2O emissions – chemical fertilizer impact greater in tropics
• Both EU home grown biofuels and tropical imports
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
UK Government figures NOW in complete scientific doubt
• From LowCVP presentation to UK Bioenergy conference Sept 2007
Unaccounted for N20
???
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
UK Government figures NOW in complete scientific doubt
• From LowCVP presentation to UK Bioenergy conference Sept 2007
Corn Ethanol -50% Oil Seed rape
biodiesel -70%
Massive destruction beyond N2O - Agrofuels are
accelerating climate change
Deforestation for oil palms, Colombia
Fires to clear land for palm oil, KalimantanPhoto by Nordin, Save our Borneo
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Peat drainage and destructionDrainage • Dry peat - oxidises and, over time, emits
all its carbon as CO2. 42-50 billion tonnes of carbon stored in those SE Asian peatlands.
Fires • Many set by plantation companies, greatly
accelerate the loss of carbon.
• Of the 27.1 million hectares of peatland in South-east Asia, 12 million hectares are deforested and mostly drained.
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Agrofuels as a new driver of peatland destruction
Indonesia plans 20 million hectares new oil palm plantations to meet biodiesel demand.
$17.4 billion investment deals in Indonesian palm oil agreed this year.
According to 2006 FAO report, growth in European rapeseed oil biodiesel has significantly pushed up global palm oil prices.
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Deforestation• “with partial deforestation the entire
landscape could become drier and a domino effect could occur producing a ‘tipping point’ affecting the whole forest”.
Conclusion of recent scientific conference
• Amazon drying out – die-back threat increasing - 120 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Amazon Deforestation and Drought
Deforestation in Novo Progreso, Brazil ; Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace/AP
Amazon drought 2005, Lake Rei
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Massive land-use change in global South, and crop commodity traffic
Massive emission exports from industralised nations to global South
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Emission trickery
Exporting emissions from Northern
transport to Southern agriculture and
landuse
NB: Soil + Peat not included
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
The Climate Context• 1st generation biofuels
– Scientific doubt on N20 for all fuel supply chains including EU oilseed rape
– Already a climate disaster• Eg Indonesian peat lands• Deforestation tropics• Yet mass-scale infrastructure and investment
ready for• 2nd generation biofuels
– 15-20 years to develop– BUT emissions must be cut now– Biohazards (even now in R&D)– Deforestation boreal and temporate
Transport sector DEMAND REDUCTION
We are currently in ‘first generation’ world – there is a
gap to any viable second generation – ‘first generation’ problems must be addressed
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Certification schemes• Greenhouse gas (GHG) balances
– URGENT need for full lifecycle, whole system (macro) carbon balance studies
• Direct and indirect environmental impacts:Deforestation, loss of habitats / biodiversity,
water depletion, soil erosion, chemicals
• Direct and indirect social impacts:Poverty, land conflicts, human rights, labour,
food security and sovereignty
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Certification context• Governments’
response to no public policy debate is to develop ‘certification schemes’ or ‘sustainability criteria’
• Calls for international scheme (UK Govt., Ford etc)
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Sustainability criteria• Driven by interests of industry and
government• Displacement / leakage not handled
– Existing agriculture displaced by agrofuels moves into new areas
• Macro impacts through commodity price shifts not handled– Amazon deforestation ←→ soy price
• US Corn for ethanol displaces US soy => soy price
– EU oilseed rape use causes palm oil prices causes palm oil expansion
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Descending the transport emissions curve - Demand reduction is key
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
1990 2000 2010 2020
Reduce vehicle emissions by 50%
- smaller, more efficient vehicles
Reduce journeys – planning, modal shift, decouple transport
from economy
Reduce liquid fuel – plug-in hybrids
Change Supply - Concentrating Solar
Power ?
Current EU energy policy
90% carbon emission reduction needed
URGENTLY!
October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts
Networking• What factsheets, lobbying support would be useful for
your organisation?
• immediate moratorium call on EU incentives for agrofuels, EU imports of agrofuels and EU agroenergy monocultures. http://www.econexus.info/biofuels.html
• Sign up to the biofuelwatch yahoo group - send a blank email to [email protected]
• www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
• Email us at [email protected] if you would like to get more involved in the campaign.