Sustainability and Agrofuels what does it really mean? Helena Paul EcoNexus www.econexus.info International Workshop on Global Agrofuels: Sustaining What Development? 30 August – 3 September 2009 Maputo Mozambique

EU: agrofuels promised as a means to: Reduce GHG emissions Develop and modernise agriculture Provide better returns to desperate EU farmers Regenerate declining rural areas Provide jobs and export earnings Regenerate soils and degraded land with “advanced” agrofuels

What is the context of EU agrofuels promotion? EU model of development built on fossil oil Agrofuels as a means to maintain the model, not to change it Thus satisfying industrial lobbies not challenging the public love of the car while (hopefully) reducing greenhouse gas emissions

EU agrofuels 2020 projection 10% per EU state minimum for transport This could require 16-31Mha of EU land! Total EU arable land: 88 Mha For 10% of transport, which is around 25% of EU total energy consumption, we would need 18-35% EU arable land! Conclusion: this would compete with EU food production increasing from 10% would mean using even more EU land for agrofuels clearly EU must import from the global south!

Agrofuel futures in the EU Second generation agrofuels, using the whole plant or tree Promised as a solution to all the problems of the first generation Leading to Replacement of all products derived from fossil oil with products from biomass The integrated biorefinery and The bioeconomy, linking biotech oil, power, automotive, timber and paper industries

Sustainability criteria for agrofuels in the EU To reassure politicians and public with doubts about agrofuels Environmental criteria to prevent destruction of forests, biodiversity, land with high carbon stocks, wetlands and peatlands; promote use of “degraded” land Social criteria to seek compliance with ILO conventions - if countries have signed them

Monitoring and compliance rules for criteria Economic operators should be able to show criteria have been fulfilled Member states to ensure that this does not place an “undue burden” on industry Since fuels will be mixed, a “mass balance” system is used to calculate average sustainability of the mixture Main punishment is not being allowed to count your fuels towards the target

What is sustainability? Some definitions "Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." able to endure over time renew itself and maintain processes into the future

We are told that agrofuels are sustainable Fossil oil will finally run out, But plants and trees keep growing - an endlessly renewable resource What are we really sustaining here? Perpetuating the internal combustion engine Keeping cars on the road Sustaining the western development model

Western development model Based on high energy intensity, using energy dense fossil oil Can/should the rest of the world follow the same path in the future? Is it just to deny them what the west has enjoyed? Are peak oil/climate collapse inevitable? Can/should we develop an alternative to fossil oil? Should we change the model? If so, how?

If not this model, then what? What kind of development do we want? What kind of development would be truly sustainable? Who will decide and how? How do we get there from here? Who will it belong to?

Development – two basic models Imposed from outside, eg: via investment for export trade Market driven, often corporate dependent Products primarily for export Developed from inside, from the ground up This needs time and broad public discussion Protection from outside interference and pressure May require outside assistance, but on the terms of those who have developed it

What part will agrofuels play in our energy futures? How important will agrofuels be: for agriculture? for energy? Will they mainly be produced: For export? For internal use?

Can agrofuels sometimes play a role in sustainable development? where there is no electricity grid where there are few roads and little infrastructure when produced by communities for their own use and limited sales without the intervention of large corporations What would this look like?

Agrofuels and colonisers old and new EU and EU corporations looking for agrofuel production in Africa Land-grabbing by corporations and countries seeking investment opportunities for profit and food/agrofuel security Brazil exporting sugar ethanol production methodologies worldwide including to Mozambique China investing in Africa and South America – wants animal feed, iron, timber ….and agrofuel

Last word from Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food “There still is a vast market for first-generation agrofuels” Existing incentives for biofuels in the United States and European Union remain a cause for grave concern Biofuels remain an important driver behind big land acquisitions and land leases in poor countries that jeopardize local inhabitants’ food security. Safeguards adopted by the European Union in 2008 “absolutely insufficient to monitor to the impacts on the countries concerned by shifts in land use for agrofuels production.” Next generation fuels “are too distant for the moment to say that we can continue to insist on the use of agrofuels for transport.” June 12, 2009, 10:24 am Biofuels and ‘Land Grabs’ in Poor Nations by James Kanter AFP/Getty http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/biofuels-and-land-grabs-in-poor-nations/