Gretchen, Geoffrey, et. al.-
I found the following article posted on Weber Amaral's website when I googled the Portuguese translation of WTO+biofuels+Brazil (OMC+biocobusteveis+Brazil). The article, published several weeks ago in Folha de São Paulo, says that Brazil is attempting to fight some process-based standards being proposed by a Swedish diplomat for indirect land use change (ILUC) caused by biofuels, but they consider the WTO a forum of last resort They have sent Isiais Macedo to Brussels to discuss his life cycle analysis on the topic. In the interest of time I google translated the two versions of the article. The translation is pretty bad so non-Portuguese speakers should ask for clarifications if they'd like.
Finally, the basic logic/rhetoric of the ITAMARATY (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), as described in this article, very closely mirrors the conversation we had with an ITAMARATY rep. right around the same time. She attended our meeting at UNICA. Abby has her name and contact info. Abby could you reply to this post with her name and contact details?
http://www.polobio.esalq.usp.br/noticias-visualizar.php?Id=637
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u415927.shtml
Brasil tenta derrubar na UE "taxa verde" ao álcool (25/06/2008)
O Brasil mobilizou sua diplomacia para convencer a União Européia a não levar adiante uma lei que reduziria a vantagem ambiental dos biocombustíveis, comprometendo a imagem do álcool e a campanha do governo Lula para transformar o produto em commodity internacional. Num encontro com representantes da UE na segunda-feira, diplomatas brasileiros deixaram claro que não descartam recorrer à OMC contra a iniciativa.
O projeto que está atualmente em estudo no Parlamento Europeu prevê o corte de 24% na taxa de redução de emissões de gases poluentes de cada biocombustível, tornando-os menos atraentes. O álcool brasileiro, que emite 74% menos gases do que a gasolina, teria essa taxa reduzida para 50%.
A preocupação com os possíveis danos dessa lei a seus interesses levou o Brasil a reunir, em sua missão em Bruxelas, membros da CE (Comissão Européia), o braço executivo da UE, e representantes de nove países. Embora a reunião tenha sido de nível técnico, e não político, os interesses comerciais não puderam ser ignorados.
Elaborado pelo deputado sueco Anders Wijkman, o projeto cria uma taxa sobre o "uso da terra", com base numa idéia polêmica: a de que mesmo os biocombustíveis mais "verdes" provocam dano ambiental indireto, pois forçam o deslocamento de plantações e, nos piores casos, causam desmatamento. É exatamente a idéia que o Brasil tenta combater nos fóruns internacionais.
Para convencer as autoridades européias das vantagens ambientais do álcool, o Itamaraty levou a Bruxelas o professor Isaías Macedo, especialista em biocombustíveis da Unicamp. A UE respondeu convocando seu próprio expert, Robert Edwards. O Brasil mostrou números da eficiência do álcool de cana, mas não deixou de lado a ameaça velada de apresentar uma queixa à OMC.
O conceito de Wijkman, membro do Comitê de Meio Ambiente do Parlamento, divide opiniões também dentro da Comissão Européia. Há uma queda-de-braço entre os setores de Energia e Transporte, que são favoráveis aos biocombustíveis, e o de Meio Ambiente, que os vê com desconfiança.
Os ambientalistas não conseguiram fazer a UE rever a meta de ter, até 2020, 10% do transporte rodoviário movido a biocombustíveis. Mantida a meta, abre-se um grande mercado para o biocombustível estrangeiro, principalmente o biodiesel, o mais usado na Europa.
A nova norma, se aprovada, atingiria outros biocombustíveis com mais força que o álcool, mas o Itamaraty acha que a imagem do mercado como um todo sofreria um golpe. "Seria uma pancada" nos biocombustíveis, reconhece um especialista no assunto. O Brasil também prefere manter um recurso à OMC como uma opção remota, pois acha que causar barulho em torno do assunto pode ferir seus interesses mais do que uma possível vitória.
Brazil seeks to overturn the EU "green rate" to alcohol (25/06/2008)
The United States mobilized its diplomacy to convince the European Union not to carry out a law that reduce the environmental benefit of biofuels, undermining the image of alcohol and the campaign of Lula's government to transform the product in international commodity. In a meeting with EU representatives on Monday, Brazilian diplomats made clear that not descartam recourse to the WTO against the initiative.
The project is currently under study in the European Parliament provides for a cut of 24% in the rate of reduction of emissions of pollutants from each biofuel, making them less attractive. The Brazilian alcohol, which emits 74% less gas than petrol, would have reduced the rate to 50%.
The concern about possible damage to its interests that law led Brazil to gather in their mission in Brussels, members of the EC (European Commission), the EU's executive arm, and representatives of nine countries. Although the meeting was of a technical, not political, commercial interests could not be ignored.
Developed by Swedish MEP Anders Wijkman, the project creates a tax on the use of land ", based on a controversial idea: that of biofuels that even more" green "indirect cause environmental damage, because forcing the displacement of plantations and in worst cases, cause deforestation. It is exactly the idea that Brazil tries to combat in international forums.
To convince the authorities of European environmental benefits of alcohol, the Itamaraty Brussels led to the teacher Isaias Macedo, a biofuel expert at UNICAMP. The EU responded calling its own expert, Robert Edwards. Brazil figures showed the efficiency of the sugar cane alcohol, but did not leave aside the implied threat to lodge a complaint with the WTO.
The concept of Wijkman, member of the Committee on the Environment of Parliament, also divided opinions within the European Commission. There is a drop-in-arm among the sectors of Energy and Transportation, which are favourable to biofuels, and the Environment, which sees with suspicion.
Environmentalists failed to make the EU revise the goal to have, by 2020, 10% of road moved to biofuels. Kept the goal, there is a large market for biofuel abroad, mainly biodiesel, the most widely used in Europe.
The new standard, if approved, would reach other biofuels with more force that alcohol, but the Itamaraty think the image of the market as a whole would suffer a blow. "It would be a pancada" in biofuels, acknowledges an expert in the subject. Brazil also prefers to maintain an appeal to the WTO as a remote option because it believes that cause noise around the issue may hurt their interests more than a possible victory.
Source: Leaf, 25/06/2008.
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A diplomacia brasileira ameaçou recorrer à OMC (Organização Mundial do Comércio) numa tentativa de derrubar um projeto de lei que reduziria a vantagem ambiental dos biocombustíveis na União Européia, conforme relata Marcelo Ninio, correspondente da Folha em Genebra, em reportagem publicada na edição desta quarta-feira (in an attempt to overthrow a draft law that would reduce the environmental benefit
Biofuels in the European Union, as reports Marcelo Ninio,
the Folha correspondent in Geneva in story published in this edition
Wednesday (fully available only to subscribers of the newspaper and Uol).
The draft law, which is under consideration in Parliament, creates a tax on
"use of land", based on a controversial idea: that the same biofuels
more "green" indirect cause environmental damage, because forcing the displacement of
plantations and, in worst cases, cause deforestation. It is exactly the idea that the
Brazil tries to combat in international forums.
Biofuels are now the great "horse of battle" of the Brazilian government in
internationally. The President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in his travels
international, have sought not to leave unanswered the main criticism of
the production of alcohol from sugar cane.
"[The] Brazil has technology for producing a fuel that is the spirit, which issues
less carbon dioxide than other fuels. And it was important to say that
because it has a real trade war, "said the chairman, in a reference
its participation in the umbrella of FAO (United Nations to
Food and Agriculture) in Rome in early June.
Criticism biofuels extends from the field until the economic area
environment. In late April, the rapporteur of the UN (United Nations)
for the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, reached a high of saying that the
food was due to food processing in biofuels and speculation
financial.
If you do have such a cite, can the rest of us see it, too?
Geoffrey.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gretchen Gordon [mailto:graciela@riseup.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 11:04 AM
To: Alastair Iles
Cc: Avery Cohn; Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith; Renata M. T. Andrade; Andy
Jones; Abigail Martin; Leticia Cesarino; Gretchen Gordon;
alastair.iles@gmail.com
Subject: Re: More interesting biofuels news
Hi,
Do any of you have a cite for Brazil saying it won~t stand for mandatory
sustainability reqs?
g
> Jatropha may provide seeds for future energy use
>
> By Doreen Hemlock | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
> July 6, 2008
>
> ELIAS PINA, Dominican Republic - Could a scraggly tree now used as
> fencing in the tropics help slash the world's dependence on petroleum,
> producing income for farmers and a plant oil to substitute for diesel?
>
> South Florida energy experts want to find out. They're watching a host
> of projects in Latin America to grow jatropha and process its seeds
> into biodiesel. If those ventures take off, those countries could
> possibly reduce their petroleum imports, develop rural areas and
> export biofuel to Florida.
>
> The potential for business is huge. Fort Lauderdale-based Global
> Energy Trading Company, Getco, is among the jatropha pioneers in South
> America, with plans to invest tens of millions of dollars in Peru,
> Colombia and maybe Brazil. International Clean Energy of Palm Beach
> Gardens is testing different varieties to figure out which are best
> suited for South Florida conditions to yield the most biodiesel.
>
> But the big question is whether the projects can turn profits on
> large-scale production. So far, operations are too small and artisanal
> to gauge. It will take years — and lots more investment — to determine
> jatropha's viability as a global biofuel industry, experts said.
>
> Video
>
> Related links
>
> *
> <b>Find it:</b> Lowest gas prices in your neighborhood Find it:
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> *
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> Tips: Tracking prices across S. Fla., plus how you can save
>
> Agronomist Mathilde Laval is banking on jatropha to help the Dominican
> Republic, initially to improve the lives of subsistence farmers in
> Elias Piña, a dusty area on the border with Haiti where jobs and money
> are scarce. She works with a nonprofit group that is encouraging
> farmers to plant the trees, sell the seeds to be crushed into oil and
> then, use the oil in stoves instead of burning firewood.
>
> In the future, she hopes oil can be processed into biodiesel, offering
> rural areas a chance to meet more of their energy needs.
>
> Jatropha seems almost a miracle plant. It doesn't need much water or
> fertilizer. It grows even on denuded soil and hills. Animals don't
> like to eat it. It's too scrawny to cut down for firewood. It can grow
> for more than 40 years. And just selling the seeds for their oil
> should earn farmers in Elias Piña more than most earn — perhaps $800 a
> year for a 2.5-acre farm, Laval said.
>
> That's enough money to interest farmer Hector Tolentino. The
> 54-year-old now rides his horse farther each day to find enough
> firewood to cook his meals. Area residents have been cutting down
> trees for so many generations that the land is eroding and drying out.
>
> "If I could get jatropha oil at a reasonable price, I'd get a stove to
> cook on," said Tolentino, a thin man with a big smile.
>
> Native to the Caribbean area, jatropha has become coveted worldwide
> amid rising costs for petroleum and diesel. At least 720,000 hectares
> already have been planted in China, Guatemala, Malaysia, India and
> other countries. By 2014, that acreage could more than triple,
> according to London-based research firm New Energy Finance.
>
> Advocates say biodiesel from jatropha burns cleaner than fossil fuels.
> It can be used in vehicles without having to adapt the engines. And
> unlike corn processed into ethanol, it is not a food crop. Its
> harvesting for fuel won't put pressure on food prices.
>
> But there are many risks for producers trying to make profits on a
> large commercial scale.
>
> Trees can die from diseases, for example. A fungus recently attacked
> hundreds of jatropha seedlings at a nursery developed by Laval's
> group, said farmer Rafael Paulino, 54. He gets paid to plant seeds in
> plastic bags and help nurture them into seedlings that later will be
> transported for planting on farms — earning about $8 a day plus lunch,
> more than the going wage in the area.
>
> Producers still need to figure out which varieties yield the most
> seeds and oil for different areas depending on soil, rain and other
> conditions. And they must weigh costs, which can vary widely by region
> and country for labor, land and other basic inputs.
>
> There are also questions about creating environmental imbalances by
> planting a single crop over miles of land.
>
> "I can't recommend now that anyone plant 100,000 acres," conceded Omar
> Bros, co-founder of the nonprofit group, Dominican Institute of
> Integrated Development, where French agronomist Laval is leading the
> small-scale test project.
>
> But Getco of Fort Lauderdale is placing bigger bets, preparing to
> invest millions of dollars in South American plantations. Chief
> Executive James Fanning is buoyed by a 2007 report from investment
> firm Goldman Sachs that estimated jatropha could be processed into a
> barrel of fuel for about $43, about the same cost as sugar cane-based
> ethanol and roughly half the cost of ethanol made from corn. He knows
> the report bases its projections on relatively small jatropha farms in
> India, but figures even at higher costs, he can cash in.
>
> "With the price of oil where it is today, you don't have to be a
> rocket scientist to know there's a tremendous amount of money to be
> made," Fanning said during the recent JatrophaWorld conference in
> Miami.
>
> International Clean Energy of Palm Beach Gardens is more cautious.
>
> It's first testing different varieties and compiling data on plant
> yields, costs and other basics before considering investment in
> biodiesel on a large scale. Growing and testing seeds will take at
> least a year, said energy expert George Philippidis of Florida
> International University, who is working with the new company.
>
> "There's this fascination with jatropha now," Philippidis said. "But
> we need to manage expectations."
>
> Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or
> 305-810-5009.
>
> Jatropha facts Grows in wastelands and can thrive in sandy or rocky
> soil. It can be planted in the desert, so it doesn't compete with food
> crops. Is a poisonous shrub . It has been used as a living fence to
> protect gardens and fields from animals. Originates in Central Americ
> a and has spread to other tropical and subtropical countries. Source:
> The Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species
>
> More articles
>
> Colombia finds biofuels bonanza in sugar cane
>
> By JOHN OTIS
> Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
> TOOLS
>
> Get section feed
>
> Recommend (1)
> Comments
> Yahoo! Buzz
> RESOURCES
> PHOTO GALLERY
> See a Colombian sugar plantation in action
>
> El Cerrito, Colombia — Between breaks to sharpen his machete under the
> equatorial sun, Gregorio Hurtado laid waste to row upon row of 9-foot
> sugar cane stalks.
>
> Like plantation labor of a bygone era, the cane harvest remains a
> backbreaking task. Even though Hurtado earns just $3 for every ton of
> the fibrous stalks he cuts, he's happy to have a job amid the chaos of
> Colombia's sugar industry.
>
> For that, he can thank several new ethanol plants towering above the
> sea of green cane fields that cover this patch of western Colombia.
> Even as low world prices and the weak U.S. dollar have hurt sugar
> exporters here, Colombia's biofuels industry is growing by leaps and
> bounds.
>
> Ahead-of-the-curve planning, technological breakthroughs and
> government incentives have helped Colombia emerge as the No. 2
> producer of ethanol in Latin America, behind Brazil, and a leader in
> the manufacture of biodiesel.
>
> "We took the initiative years ago and became a pioneer," Jorge
> Cardenas, president of the Colombian Biofuels Federation, said in an
> interview.
>
> With just over 100 million gallons annually, Colombian ethanol
> production is dwarfed by the billions of gallons churned out yearly in
> the U.S. and Brazil.
>
> Yet Colombia is a technological leader in the field and is
> experimenting with biofuel production using everything from sugar
> beets and palm oil to yucca.
>
> Colombian experts are helping companies in Guatemala, Honduras and El
> Salvador set up ethanol plants.
>
> Farther north, Louisiana Green Fuels, which is partially owned by
> Colombian investors, plans to launch what could become the first sugar
> cane ethanol plant in the U.S., near Lake Charles.
>
> The distillery, scheduled to open next year, will produce about 25
> million gallons annually. Three more plants are to be built by 2012.
>
> "The Colombian work ethic, engineering and appreciation for ethanol
> production have had a significant part to play in bringing this
> project to fruition," said Randal Johnson, a company spokesman.
>
> Colombia is also the hemisphere's largest producer of palm oil.
>
> Tons of oil are turned into biodiesel, which elsewhere is made from
> rapeseed oil.
>
> Biodiesel production will more than double this year to 218 million
> gallons, Jens Mesa Dishington of the Federation of Oil Palm Producers
> said in Bogotá, the capital.
>
> The world's sudden thirst for biofuels came at precisely the right
> moment for Colombia's sugar growers.
>
> Not only did world prices for the sweetener drop from nearly 15 cents
> to 10 cents a pound last year, but the weakening dollar meant less
> income for sugar exporters.
>
> In 2007, their profits plummeted by 44 percent, according to the
> Colombian Sugar Cane Growers Association.
>
> These days, however, mills are shifting much of the cane from sugar to
> ethanol production, which is far more profitable.
>
> More used for ethanol
> At the Providencia Sugar Mill, which is the size of several football
> fields, massive machines wash and shred cane stalks then press out the
> juices. These liquids are crystallized into sugar or fermented and
> distilled into ethanol.
>
> "We started out using 18 percent of the cane for ethanol, but in some
> months the figure has gone up to 40 percent," said Marucio Tello, who
> helps run the ethanol distillery at the Providencia mill, 15 miles
> northeast of Cali.
>
> Colombia was once the world's sixth-largest sugar exporter, but
> overseas sales have dropped by half since 2003. Meanwhile, five modern
> distilleries now produce enough to make the nation nearly
> self-sufficient in ethanol.
>
> The transition has helped the sugar industry avoid job cuts and mill
> closures.
>
> Nearly the entire crop is harvested by about 15,000 workers, most of
> whom wear metal gloves and shinguards to keep from gashing themselves
> as they slice down the fields with their thick-bladed machetes.
>
> "Biofuels have given us some breathing room," said Alvaro Amaya,
> director of the Center for the Investigation of Sugar Cane.
>
> Although neighboring Brazil has been producing huge quantities of
> ethanol since the 1970s, Colombia began to seriously consider biofuels
> in 2001 as oil reserves dwindled. Analysts predicted the country would
> need to start importing petroleum by 2012, and ethanol and biodiesel
> seemed like attractive alternatives.
>
> Huge potential
> Unlike in the United States and Europe, where most of the fertile
> acres are already under cultivation, Colombia still has vast tracts
> that could be turned into farmland to produce biomass without
> disrupting the national food chain.
>
> "The agricultural frontier could be expanded enormously," President
> Alvaro Uribe told a recent gathering of farmers. "There is land for
> everything: to increase food production and to increase biofuel
> production."
>
> Colombia already grows half a million acres of sugar cane, which is
> far more efficient than corn or other crops for producing ethanol.
>
> Newly developed strains of the plant helped Colombian farmers reduce
> the growing cycle from 17 to 12 months and extract 6 tons of sugar per
> acre, the highest sugar production rate in the world.
>
> The key incentive came when the government mandated that the national
> gasoline supply must contain 10 percent ethanol by the end of 2009, a
> figure that will increase to 25 percent by 2025.
>
> Meanwhile, palm groves first planted to produce edible oils have been
> expanded to supply newly built biodiesel plants. A new law mandates
> that the country's diesel must contain at least 5 percent biodiesel by
> year's end.
>
> "The oil was running out. That was the determining factor," said
> Cardenas, of the Biofuels Federation. "If there had been enough oil,
> we wouldn't have had the political will to do this. But with oil at
> more than $100 a barrel and reserves falling, people began to get
> worried."
>
> Getting into biofuels production "was like striking an oil deposit
> equal to 10 percent of the country's supply," added Johan Martinez of
> the Sugar Cane Growers Association in Cali.
>
> The Uribe government wants to expand the sugar cane crop from 500,000
> acres to 2.5 million acres to feed more than a dozen ethanol
> distilleries expected to come into produc-
> tion within the next five years.
>
> Eventually, the plan is to export ethanol to the United States. Unlike
> Brazilian ethanol, which faces a 54-cent-per-gallon import tariff,
> Colombian ethanol could enter the American market duty-free under the
> terms of trade agreement between the two nations that has yet to be
> approved by the U.S.
> Congress.
>
> Taking over
> Not everyone is thrilled with the expansion plans.
>
> At a recent meeting of regional leaders in Mexico, Nicaraguan
> President Daniel Ortega complained of rising food prices in poor
> nations and criticized Uribe for encouraging Central American
> countries to grow more sugar cane for ethanol than food crops.
>
> "For Nicaragua, it's a mortal sin to talk about biofuels," Ortega said.
>
> There have also been widespread reports from northern Colombia about
> peasant farmers who returned after being driven away by death squads
> to find their fields occupied by industrial-scale oil palm producers.
>
> Yet at the same time, industry backers are promoting biofuels as a way
> to generate more jobs in the impoverished countryside, where many
> down-and-out farmers plant coca, the raw material for cocaine.
>
> U.N. statistics showed that the coca crop in Colombia, the world's
> largest producer of cocaine, had expanded by 27 percent last year to
> 245,000 acres.
>
> Speaking at a recent biofuels conference, Agriculture Minister Andres
> Felipe Arias said: "Peasants who grow
> palm trees are not going to fall into the temptation to grow coca."
>
> john.otis@chron.com
>
>
> Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
>
> Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
>
> * Aditya Chakrabortty
> * The Guardian,
> * Friday July 4, 2008
> * Article history
>
> Corn used for biofuel
>
> A handful of corn before it is processed. Photograph: Charlie
> Neibergall/AP
>
> Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than
> previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report
> obtained by the Guardian.
>
> The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed
> analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an
> internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
>
> The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that
> plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It
> will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe,
> which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of
> greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
>
> Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has
> not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
>
> "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White
> House," said one yesterday.
>
> The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on
> biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next
> week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and
> come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium
> on the use of plant-derived fuels.
>
> It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to
> release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher
> Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study
> will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in
> pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last
> week, the report has still not been released.
>
> "Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong
> evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises,"
> said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we
> have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping
> industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough
> to eat."
>
> Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty
> line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh
> to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and
> fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".
>
> President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from
> India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid
> income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases
> in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for
> the large price increases."
>
> Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had
> a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for
> biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.
>
> Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5%
> from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10%
> by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push
> food prices higher.
>
> "Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would
> not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors
> would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices
> examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The
> report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted
> for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for
> a 75% jump over that period.
>
> It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in
> three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel,
> with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about
> half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of
> biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for
> biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in
> grains, driving prices up higher.
>
> Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer
> period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at
> smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author,
> Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a
> detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which
> allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food
> supply.
>
> The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil
> specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
>
> Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to
> relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been
> disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US
> production of ethanol from plants.
>
> "It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices,"
> said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser,
> last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising
> higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."
>
>
> Food price rises force biofuel U-turn
>
> By Colin Brown
> Friday, 4 July 2008
> Related Articles
>
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>
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>
> Soaring world food prices look set to force Gordon Brown into a U-turn
> over the use of crops such as corn, rapeseed, palm and soya to produce
> fuel as an alternative to petrol and diesel.
>
> Biofuels were seen as the eco-friendly answer to global warming and
> rising fuel prices but a report to be published on Monday will force
> the Prime Minister to rethink his support for using crops to keep
> Britain's cars and lorries running.
>
> A second report will also force Downing Street to revise its policies
> on food and the environment – opening Mr Brown to the charge from
> environmental groups of going soft on the Government's green agenda.
>
> The Prime Minister has been warned in a report by Professor Ed
> Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, that the rush for
> biofuels has made a "significant" contribution to the soaring cost of
> food on the global markets. Corn ethanol and biodiesel derived from
> vegetable oil were widely seen as important ways of creating fuel and
> combating carbon emissions which contribute to global warming.
>
> The Gallagher review threatens to knock out an important plank in Mr
> Brown's environmental strategy. He introduced targets in April in
> Britain requiring all petrol and diesel to contain 2.5 per cent of
> biofuels with the intention of doubling it to 5 per cent by 2010. The
> EU is contemplating a 10 per cent target by 2020. Professor
> Gallagher's report will say the production of fuels from "biomass" –
> non-food crops – may be sustainable but it challenges the targets for
> producing fuel from other crops normally used for food.
>
> Greenpeace said biofuels initially "looked good on paper" but the
> Gallagher review would conclude that the risks are too great to impose
> higher targets.
>
> The campaign group called for a moratorium on targets, subsidies and
> tax breaks for biofuels consumption until it was clear that they could
> be produced from sustainable sources. Oxfam said: "It is clear that
> any additional pressure on limited land resources has the potential to
> drive further agriculture clearance of forests or other habitats and
> to drive up food prices."
>
> The vast majority of the European biodiesel was made from rapeseed
> oil, said Oxfam. "As we divert more and more rapeseed crop into fuel,
> European industry is buying increasing supplies of edible oils from
> overseas including palm oil.
>
> A second report by the Cabinet Office strategy unit is intended to
> launch a debate over how Britain uses its land more effectively to
> produce more food.
>
> In a further blow to the Prime Minister's "green" strategy, ministers
> are preparing to respond to the pressure from motorists – led by
> haulage owners who staged a noisy protest around Westminster this week
> – by bringing forward the announcement by the Chancellor Alistair
> Darling that the 2p rise in fuel duty in October will be scrapped.
>
--
Avery Cohn | Ph.D. Student | Environmental Science, Policy & Management | UC Berkeley | avery.cohn@gmail.com | (510) 410-3731
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