October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts Biofuels and their impacts on Global Climate, People and Forests Biofuelwatch 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 % biofuel by volume April % April % (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 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 Publications

October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts

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 Fuel FAO 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

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

October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts Ecological Impacts Biodiversity Biodiversity hotspots hidden by official gazetting in Malaysia/Indonesia Biofuel threat to Great Apes highlighted by Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey and others Set-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

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

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 See video at :

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 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, Kalimantan Photo by Nordin, Save our Borneo

October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts Peat drainage and destruction Drainage Dry peat - oxidises and, over time, emits all its carbon as CO 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 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 1 st 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 2 nd 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

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

October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts Descending the transport emissions curve - Demand reduction is key 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

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. Sign up to the biofuelwatch yahoo group - send a blank to biofuelwatch- us at if you would like to get more involved in the campaign.

October 2007 Biofuels and their impacts