Agrofuels – The costs to climate, people and environment Food Communities Biodiversity Climate Agrofuel Impacts Almuth Ernsting March 2009

AGROFUELS December 2008: Landless and small farmers in Paraguay defend forest and farmland from being turned into another soya monoculture. Biofuels are driving the second wave of soya expansion across much of South America. Photo:

EU and US biofuel polices drive monoculture expansion EU: 5.75% indicative biofuel target by % mandatory ('renewable energy for transport') target agreed for US: Renewable Fuel Standard requires 9 billion gallons of biofuels in 2008 – and 36 billion gallons by 2022.

US / EU Biofuels for Transport Policies going off the graph EU – 10% by 2020 (1% now) ‏ US – 20% by 2020 (4% now) ‏

Heat & Power and Aviation: The new markets for agrofuels + When Virgin flew a plane with a 5% biofuel blend from London to Amsterdam, they had to use 150,000 coconuts.The International Air Transport Association state they want 10% of all aviation fuels to come from 'alternative fuels' – including biofuels. + In Germany, 1,800 CHP plants run on palm oil. The UK biofuel industry is speaking of a potential 6 billion litre home heating market for vegetable oil. Blue NG are planning the first biofuel power plants in this country.

Agrofuels are accelerating climate change Logging of Cote d'Ivoire's last large ancient forest, Tanoe, for palm oil Deforestation for soya, northern Argentina

Deforestation for palm oil Sarawak, Malaysia Friends of the Earth Europe Papua New Guinea Colombia Klaus Schenck, Salva la Selga Bugala Island, Uganda

Climate change mitigation? South-east Asia's peatlands contain up to 50 billion tonnes of carbon. This carbon will be released as the peat is drained. 45% has been drained – the rest is likely to be destroyed largely to meet global demand for biodiesel and vegetable oil for heat and power. Peat drainage for oil palms, Sarawak, Photo

Peat destruction S.E. Asia Drainage: Dry peat - oxidises and, over time, emits all its carbon as CO billion tonnes of carbon stored in those 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.

Climate impact of global peatland degradation

Climate change mitigation? NASA satellite image – September 2007 According to a 2006 study by NASA scientists: The rate of Amazon destruction correlates with the market price of soya. 2007: Soya prices rising fast, largely due to biofuel expansion October 2007-October 2008: Deforestation in nine Amazon states up 228%

Storm clouds over the Amazon: How the forest drives rainfall The Amazon forest recycles 70-80% of its rainfall. Large amounts of energy are released and push rain clouds across much of Latin America and the southern US. Without enough dense canopy, that whole rainfall system could collapse.

Deforestation plus global warming= Amazon die-back??

European agrofuels: Worse for the climate than fossil fuels? A new study by nobel laureate Paul Crutzen suggests that nitrous oxide (N2O)emissions linked to fertiliser use have been greatly underestimated. N2O is almost 300 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2. With the new figures, biofuels from maize and rapeseed oil are worse for the climate than fossil fuels.

Indirect impacts – Do UK grown biofuel crops drive rainforest destruction Using land or crops for agrofuels rather than food means that somewhere else, land will be converted to grow food. Example: According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Europe's food and cosmetics industries are importing far more palm oil because most rapeseed oil is used for biodiesel. This is one of the main cause of palm oil expansion. Tropical forests are the main agricultural frontier today.

Europe's biodiversity sacrificed for agrofuels “We are witnessing unprecedented species loss on German farmlands”, Frank Neuschulz, conservation expert. The agrofuel industry successfully lobbied for set-asides to be abolished without any replacement. Birds, insects, wildflowers and other species are being wiped out across Europe as a reult.

Photo: Agrofuel expansion = Loss of land rights and food sovereignty Eviction of 120 fanilies of small farmers for sugar cane ethanol in Brazil. Similar evictions are common across across much of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The human cost of ethanol Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol is considered to be the most 'efficient' and cheapest of all biofuels. This is to large part due to appalling working conditions, low wages and, in some cases, slavery and child labour. The pictures show the poverty in which the families of cane-cutters have to live, and working conditions on a sugar estate. Photos: Clemens Hoegens

Agrofuel expansion and human rights: The Indonesian example In West Kalimantan (Indonesia) alone, 5 million indigenous people are likely to be displaced by agrofuel expansion (Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)‏ Protests against destruction of forests and community lands for palm oil, pulp and timber in Sumatra Photo by Feri Irawan, WALHI Jambi

Land-grabbing for agrofuels in Ghana Community land cleared in northern Ghana: A Norwegian biodiesel company duped an illiterate chief to sign away 38,000 hectares with a thumbprint. This particular deal has been stopped – many others have not. Photo: Rains

Growing opposition

Colombia: Communities reclaim their land from palm oil companies Communities in the Bajo Atrato cut down illegal palm oil plantations to reclaim the land to which they hold legal titles. They face increasing violence from paramilitaries acting on behalf of the companies, backed by state forces. Pictures: Interfaith Commission for Justice and Peace

Paraguay: Peasants mobilise against soya agribusiness – October/November 2008 Peasants and social movements are mobilising against pesticide spraying, evictions and violence linked to the soya industry. Photos:

Are second-generation biofuels the answer? Second generation biofuels = solid biomass (wood, straw, grasses, etc) to liquid fuel Two pathways: - thermal conversion - bio-chemical conversion (cellulosic ethanol, biobutanol, etc)‏ Today, it takes more energy to produce second generation biofuels than is gained. Nobody knows if or when there will be a technological breakthrough to make this feasible.

The risks of second-generation biofuels + GE microbes needed to produce cellulosic ethanol or biobutanol – What will happen when they get into ecosystems? + GE trees being developed specifically for second-generation agrofuels – What are the impacts for natural forests? + What will happen if a technology is found to turn any part of the biosphere into liquid fuel just when oil is likely to become scarce?

The next agrofuel feedstock? Eucalyptus Plantations in Uruguay and Bahia, Brazil

Voices from the South 1 “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.” Declaration by five large Latin American NGO networks, January 2006

Voices from the South 2 “These trends will put serious pressure on African communities to change the crops they grow, their access to land, food and forests, while our wilderness and forest areas are sacrificed. If Africa is to attempt to meet the vast energy requirements of the UK and the rest of the EU, then these impacts will be enormous.” From a submission to the UK Governmnent by NGOs from Kenya, Benin, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania

Calls for an immediate agrofuel moratorium  More than 200 NGO’s calling for an EU agrofuel moratorium  Similar moratorium calls for Africa, US, Australia, Paraguqy and Argentina  Via Campesina call for a 5-year moratorium  Environmental Audit Committee calls for moratorium on agrofuel targets