Environment groups challenge claimed environment and social benefits of large scale biofuels
Fri 17 November 2006
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A coalition of environment groups describes large scale biofuel production as having "socially and environmentally devastating impacts" and claims that such schemes will not solve climate change. The coalition presented their views at a press conference held during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Gaia Foundation, Global Forest Coalition, Global Justice Ecology Project, Large Scale Biofuels Action Group, the STOP GE Trees Campaign and World Rainforest Movement warn that not only will large-scale use of biofuels and genetic engineering technology not help to alleviate climate change, they may actually worsen global warming while also causing environmental degradation, social inequality and poverty, particularly in developing countries.
The coalition said that the grain required to fill the tank of a single vehicle with biofuel would feed one person for a whole year.
A spokesman for the Global Forest Coalition said that soya plantations in Latin America and palm oil plantations in Indonesia, being developed for biofuels, are driving deforestation and pushing hundreds of thousands of farmers and indigenous peoples off their lands.
The group also said that the practice of using genetically engineered trees in large plantations to store carbon should be banned.
The coalition claims that using important agricultural land and water to grow biofuels instead of food for domestic consumption will have a detrimental effect on food security, especially in poor countries. They pointed out that in 2006 a worldwide increase in the use of grain for conversion to biofuels led to a 60% increase in global grain prices.
The coalition also challenges the claimed carbon-saving benefits of biofuel plantations. They point to US biofuel studies which found that the fossil fuel energy required to produce and process biofuel crops uses almost as much, or in some cases more, energy than is contained in the fuel produced. Other types of biofuel are, however, known to deliver better life-cycle greenhouse gas savings.
Related Links
Press release link (Global Justice Ecology website)
'Green Clippings' news service report link
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