Don’t like the opportunistic, economically-flawed, even counter-productive rush to biofuels? You’re not alone, though you might be surprised who shares your concerns.
Oxfam International, a social justice, anti-poverty organization has released a report condemning the EU’s biofuel mandates as not only being unproductive, but downright nasty:
EU proposals will make it mandatory by 2020 for ten per cent of all member states’ transport fuels to come from biofuels. In order to meet the substantial increase in demand, the EU will have to import biofuels made from crops like sugar cane and palm oil from developing countries. But the rush by big companies and governments in countries such as Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, Tanzania and Malaysia to win a slice of the ‘EU biofuel pie’ threatens to force poor people from their land, destroy their livelihoods, lead to the exploitation of workers and hurt the availability and affordability of food.
“In the scramble to supply the EU and the rest of the world with biofuels, poor people are getting trampled. The EU proposals as they stand will exacerbate the problem. It is unacceptable that poor people in developing countries should bear the cost of questionable attempts to cut emissions in Europe,” said Robert Bailey from Oxfam.
Biofuels may offer the potential to reduce poverty by increasing jobs and markets for small farmers, and by providing cheap renewable energy for local use, but the huge plantations emerging to supply the EU pose more threats than opportunities for poor people. The problem will only get worse as the scramble to supply intensifies unless the EU introduces safeguards to protect land rights, livelihoods, workers rights and food security.
EU member states agreed that the ten per cent target must be reached sustainably, but Oxfam warns that the current proposals contain no standards on the social or human impact.
“The EU set its biofuel target without checking the impact on people and the environment. The EU must include safeguards to ensure that the rights and livelihoods of people in producing countries are protected. Without these, the ten per cent target should be scrapped and the EU should go back to the drawing board,” said Bailey.
“Let’s be clear, biofuels are not a panacea – even if the EU is able to reach the ten per cent target sustainably, and Oxfam doubts that it can, it will only shave a few per cent of emissions off a continually growing total.”
Published reports show that as much as 5.6 million square kilometres of land – an area more than ten times the size of France – could be in production of biofuels within 20 years in India, Brazil, Southern Africa and Indonesia alone. The UN estimates that 60 million people worldwide face clearance from their land to make way for biofuel plantations. Many end up in slums in search of work, others on the very plantations that have displaced them with poor pay, squalid conditions and no worker rights. Women workers are routinely discriminated against and often paid less then men.
You can read the entire report on Oxfam’s site. While there’s a certain amount of “World to end; women and minorities hardest hit” perspective, it’s an interesting take on an issue that many people, despite differing political views, still sense is profoundly wrong-headed.
HT: Amy Ridenour’s National Center Blog.
Two other things about this worth noting. First of all, clearing the land to produce the palm oil is said to release as much carbon dioxide as Europe produces in a year–they’re more or less burning peat bogs to get down to the soil Also, a lot of the palm oil is coming through the U.S., and hence OUR biofuel subsidies are paying for biofuel for Europe–never mind a 20,000 mile sea voyage or more from farm to market, which isn’t exactly ecologically sound, either.