Stop the Planting of Biofuels on Rainforests

The growth of biofuels is one of the leading causes of deforestation. This not only destroys the beauty and diversity contained by these rain forests but also causes the release of large quantities carbon into the atmosphere.

Please sign the petition by Avaaz and help to pressurise the government not to continue subsidising this process.

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Action Against Agrofuels

On Thursday 16th October, activists frorm Action Against Agrofuel disrupted the European Biofuels Expo and Conference 2008, the largest agrofuels expo in Europe. A group of activists disguised as delegates entered the expo hall, climbed the wall and dropped banners on the main entrance, The aim of the protest was to highlight the link between agrofuels expansion and deforestation and world hunger. As well as making exascerbating climate change through rainforest destruction, population displacement and associated human right abuses. The expansion of agrofuels has a led to a major increase in the price of the world main staple foods such as maize, rice and wheat.



For futher information on the pitfalls of agrofuels take a look at the biofuelwatch website.

Also, check bellow for a warning from the IMF about the dangers of biofuels.



And check out this guy explaing that the biggest problem he is experiancing in aid work is the biofuel drive price escalation of grain prices.

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Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

According to a new report comissioned for the European Union the global biodiversity crisis is costing vastly more than the current credit crisis.

Via the BBC:

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.

It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.

The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.

It has been discussed during many sessions here at the World Conservation Congress.

Download the Report:

• The Teeb Review on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodivesrsity

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Great effort by Action Against Biofuels kicks off the action at climate camp.

Via Indymedia

Since 7.50 am this morning, 20 participants in this year's Camp for Climate Action and members of Action Against Agrofuels have been blockading the only access gate to Cargill's European regional head office in Cobham, Surrey. 8 activists have locked on to the gates closing the site down completely. Agrobusiness giant Cargill are being targeted by the protesters for their role in rainforest destruction and land-grabbing as well as for profiteering from the food crisis.

I recognise a couple of faces, and i only wish i was there!

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The 300-350 Show: Agrofuels and Climate Camp

Phil England at the 300-350 [ppm] radio program has just put the latest episode online. Topics covered include the Camp for Climate Action and the dangers of Agrofuels.

Download show: here.

All of Phil's shows are available online at the COIN archive.

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Fool supply.

Widespread flooding in the US midwest leaves the harvest rotting in sodden fields; flooding in the uk threatens the survival of ground nesting birds; the EU complains that the US is dumping its subsidised Biofuels on European markets (subsidised agricultural dumping, moi?) and the absolute king of Saudi lands opts to crank the tap up a notch even though it's a financial (rather than supply) problem. Funny how we believe him when he claims limitless oil reserves, but not when he grasses the world's financial markets up on their profiteering.

So we can all get back to "normal" now, can we? Is there anybody anywhere who still thinks it's that simple?

Oh - and Solar power begins a break through to "grid parity".

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Help us stop the UK's first biofueld power plant.

On 4th June, Newham London Borough Council will debate a planning application made by Blue-NG Ltd for the UK’s first combined heat and power plant to be run on biofuels. This will be a large plant, burning 56,000 litres of vegetable oil a day. The final decision will be made shortly afterwards by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.


Blue NG are planning seven further plants to follow this one. Blue-NG Ltd. and 20C Ltd. have managed to deceive councillors and environmental groups alike by disguising the fuel source and they have failed to engage the local community in the consultation process.

This is of particular concern given the noxious emissions associated with burning pure plant oils such as rapeseed and palm oil, which are a threat to public health. In Germany the courts recently ruled against a CHP plant burning palm oil, forcing it to close for just this reason.


For more information about the Blue NG proposal, click here;

http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/files/thames_gateway_biodiesel_project.pdf


To take action, click here;

http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/beckton.htm


If you live in London, then please send an objection to the Planning Officers, expressing your concern. You can find a draft letter on the ‘take action’ link above. We are asking only people from London to send the letters since we are not sure whether lots of letters from elsewhere will help at this stage.


On Wednesday June 4th at 7pm Newham LBC has their final consultation.

If you are a member of an environmental group or a local person living in Newham and would like to give evidence at this meeting then please submit your concerns as described above and make a specific request to present evidence at the consultation meeting on the 4th. Otherwise as a concerned member of the public you can still attend the consultation meeting.


There are two protest events run jointly by Biofuelwatch and London Food not Fuel;


1). Saturday May 31st which includes two activities: There will be a stall outside Sainsbury's on Myrtle Road, East Ham from 10:30 to 6:30. We could do with help manning the stall, explaining and handing out flyers and getting signatures for a petition. This will be followed by a banner protest from 3:00 to 5:00pm at Newham Town Hall, East Ham on the Barking Road around the corner from Sainsburys.


2). Wednesday 4th June. The second event will be timed to coincide with councillors attending the final consultation meeting at Newham Town Hall on June 4th. The meeting is at 7:00pm so we will be protesting from 6:30pm, Newham Town Hall, High Street South entrance, East Ham.

At 7:00pm we will join other members of the public attending the meeting.


Please join us and help to STOP the UK’s first biofuel power plant!


CONTACTS FOR BECKTON PROTEST

Biofuelwatch: info@biofuelwatch.org.uk

Deepak Rughani 07931 636 337; Almuth Ernsting 01224 324 797
Food Not Fuel: Maryla 07793 319 141; Amanda Burton 07939 522 966
Clare 07761 111 1325


Thank you

Biofuelwatch and Food Not Fuel

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April Biofool's Day is fast approaching!

From this Tuesday (15th April) all UK forecourts will be required by law to sell only fuel which is blended with 2.5% biofuel. This will have devastating consequences on climate, carbon sinks, food prices and human rights, with people being violently evicted from their land. EU targets are set to increase to 10% by 2020.

"The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed
one person for a year "

Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute

Please come and join to protest against biofuels and the new law (the RTFO). There will be protests all around the UK on the same day!

Tuesday 15th April
12.30-2.30
BP station in Bruntsfield (BP are big investors in biofuels).

If you like, dress as a tree to be deforested or an April (bio)fool! Bring along drums and instruments. Please contact me if you want to discuss any of this or you would like an information sheet of key messages to get across.

Hope to see you on Tuesday, Julia : 07846939059


What's wrong with agrofuels (biofuels)?

Deforestation, peatland destruction and nitrogen fertiliser use mean that agrofuels are actually worse for the climate than fossil fuel. Paul Crutzen (nobel prize-winner) suggests that rapeseed biodiesel is up to 70% worse for climate change than ordinary fossil diesel (even though it's grown in the UK so involves no deforestation or peatland destruction) due to nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertiliser which is a 300x more damaging greenhouse gas than CO2.
In the global South people are being evicted from their lands to make way for agrofuel plantations, often violently with deaths and human rights abuses taking place. In Argentina 200,000 families and in Paraguay 100,000 families have been evicted due to soya expansion. These are just 2 examples but this is happening on a wide scale in South-east Asia, India, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Colombia and the list goes on.

Food prices are soaring as a result of agrofuels. According to Jean Ziegler (until recently the UN special rapporteur on the right to food) there are 12 million more people going hungry now than a year ago due to rising food prices, something which agrofuels are a big contributer to.
Instead we need to dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, live more locally and improve public transport.

For more info on biofuels visit: www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

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Price of Rice on the Rise

There are many reasons for the price of rice going up. Of course all grain prices are linked to varying degrees so this is part of a wider problem in agricultural production. The most often quoted drivers of increasing prices are the rise of asia up the economic scale, leading to more meat consumption, and more grain required to feed the animals grown for food; the rise of bofuels, perticularly of corn ethanol in the US is also a significant factor.

Other factors such as soil degredation, decline of water qaulity and the effects of climate change on global agriculture through shifting weather patterns and drought, are all likely to add to these pressures in the medium to long term.

If you live in the US then you will be aware of the pressure being exerted on China to unpin its currency. One of the main reasons they dont do this is that they need to subsidise food for the hundereds of millions of extremely impoverished Chineese who are not currently bennefiting from national accension.

• Past article on climate change and rice.

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Foolish about Biofuels.

Rising Tide, and several other groups got together on April Fools day to rebrand it Fossil Fools Day, and a whole range of foolish construction projects and policies where highlighted. Well, in the dash away from fossil fuels, one possible option has been latched onto as a way of maintining hypermobility; biofuels.

With widespread deforestation being drivin by demand for biofuel crops, this is starting to look like a bad idea!

On 15th April Bio-Fools day is being launched with a protest at Downing street at 6pm, this date was chosen as it is the launch of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), and environmetal policy that stands a good chance of doing worse than breaking even on environmental criteria!

"The RTFO will mean that all petrol and diesel must contain a minimum percentage of ‘biofuel’. This will drastically increase the demand for ‘biofuels’ or ‘agrofuels’, that is fuels that are made from living plants (rather than the “fossilised” ones that make up oil and coal). The theory is that because these fuels absorb as much CO2 when they grow, as they emit when they are burnt, they are basically ‘carbon neutral’. Now, ‘biofuels’ made from waste materials like used chip fat are fine…. but these could only ever supply a fraction of the demand if we use biofuels to replace any significant proportion of the transport fuel that now comes from fossil fuels. To do this requires growing crops for fuel (eg rapeseed, palm oil, soy, sugar cane or jatropha) on a massive scale (this is why we use the term “agrofuels”).

This increases the pressure on land and in places like Brazil and Indonesia this increases the pressure on the rain forest and other surviving biodiverse ecosystems. Clearance for palm oil plantations is now the biggest driver behind deforestation in Indonesia and an increase in the price of soy (caused by increased demand) is seen as the main cause of the recent huge increase in the rate of deforestation in Brazil. Even if agrofuels are produced from, say, “certifiably sustainable” rapeseed in Europe this can have knock-on effects – it means there is less rapeseed available to produce cooking oils and foodstuffs and this results in a massively increased demand for Indonesian palm oil to fill the gap."

More on biofuels here.

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Biofuel of the Future: Cellulosic Ethanol

I have recently highligted a great number of studies showing problems with biofuels. From competition with food crops for land and water to encouraged deforestation, fertiliser usage and ecological impacts from pesticides. However, there are reasons for optimism that biofuels have potential, this is perticularly true when we talk about vehicles with 100mpg rather than 20-30. Perticulalry cellulosic ethanol seems to be the way to go, this is a process development challenge.

Chris Somerville [Director of the EBI, UC Berkeley]
Abstract:

The earth receives approximately 4000 times as much energy from the sun each year as the total projected human energy use in 2050. Because plants can be deployed on a large scale to capture and store solar energy, I am interested in exploring the degree to which it may become possible to use photosynthesis for sustainable production of renewable carbon-neutral energy. In considering this possibility, the Secretary of Energy of the US has called for the replacement of 30% of the liquid fuels used in the US with biofuels by 2030. I will outline some of the technical issues that must be addressed in order to understand if it is possible to reach this and related goals. I will also discuss some of the areas in which I envision significant technical advances may enable evolution of the biofuels industry.

The video bellow is from CITRIS at UC Berkeley.



Related:

• All Climate Change Action posts on Biofuels.
• Christian Aid talk covering biofuels in Brazil including labour standards and land ownership.
  

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Biofuels Studies: There have been quite a few!

In the past couple of weeks there have been a lot of studies on biofuels published. I thought i would bring them together for those of you out there interested in this topic.

1. The UK parliaments Environmental Audit Committee report.
2. The Royal Society report.
3. The EU's own internal research by the Joint Research Center has also been critical of biofuels.
4. A paper published recently in top journal Science has been receiving attention.
5. The Simithsonian Tropical Rainforest Institute has published a paper.
6. Finally, the USDA has some positive news on switchgrass. So don't anyone ever convince you that environmentalists are negative!

Related:

• All biofuels posts here.

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EC's Joint Research Council criticises biofuel policy.

The European Comission's in-house research agency--the Joint Research Council--has just come out against biofuel expansion in the EU.

"The unpublished working paper by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's in-house scientific body, makes uncomfortable reading for the EU's executive body ahead of a meeting Wednesday where it is to detail a plan for biofuels to make up 10 percent of all transport fuels in the EU by 2020."

It looks like the EC are determined to go ahead with a biofuels mandate seperate from a biomass target, despite the fact that biomass can be a more efficient usage of fuel.

"The report concludes that by using the same EU resources of money and biomass, significantly greater greenhouse gas savings could be achieved by imposing only an overall biomass-use target instead of a separate one for transport."

Friends of the Earth and Birdlife International have been perticularly outspoke on EU's seeming inability to change course despite the clear message coming from its own research.

The report gives a clear 'thumbs down' on all three accounts:

• Greenhouse gas savings: due to the indirect effects of growing biofuels, the JRC concludes that the, "uncertainty is too great to say whether the EU 10 per cent target will save [greenhouse gas emissions] or not". The report highlights that the greenhouse effect of using nitrogen fertilisers is "significantly higher" than previous estimates and that land use changes (e.g. deforestation, draining of peatlands or ploughing grasslands) could potentially release enough greenhouse gas to negate the savings from EU biofuels.
• Security of supply: the EU would be better to invest in extra storing capacity to create a strategic oil reserve to buffer short term supply shocks rather than invest (much higher sums) in biofuels which would give a limited solution to the problem of insecurity of supply. "There would be a positive effect, but its value is small compared to the costs," the report says.
• Employment creation: potential job creation risks being little more than wishful thinking as jobs created in the biofuels sector are likely to be offset by job destruction in other sectors affected by the biofuels target. "The net employment effect of the programme would be insignificant," according to the JRC.
• Cost-benefit analysis: "The costs of using biofuels outweigh the benefits of doing so," the report states. It calculates that, "the decrease in welfare caused by imposing a biofuel target is between 33 and 65 billion euros within an 80 per cent probability range".

Related:

• Royal Comission Study, Sustainable Biofuels: Prospects and Challenges.
• Past content--videos, reports and articles on Climate Change Action.
• Foe/Birdlife International press release.
• Agriculture chief makes her position clear.
  

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...an awful lot of cattle in Brazil.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has picked up speed again after briefly slowing - whilst big business gathered its forces for another assault. Despite (ie-because of) its HUGE ethanol market, Brazil remains one of the big 4 Carbon criminal states - 3/4 of it's emissions coming from deforestation and its aftermath. Still - cheap beef, eh? Fantastic!

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Biofuels News: Indonesian Boom, Switchgrass Potential, Subsidies Attacked

Biofuels where, for a short time, one of the green movements' favourite options for reducing emissions. This was all brought quickly down to earth by groups such as biofuelwatch who have been highlighting the less than ideal ways that these crops have been grown. From deforestation to compaetition with food, land degredation and slave like labour conditions, much of the industry isn't looking very ecologically friendly now.

This week several developments occured in this area.

1. One of the worst examples of biofuel production is the use of palm oil in indonesia for producing diesel. Deforestation, peat fires and labour issues combine in making this an area that most recognise as in need of increased attention. This week a doubling of production capacity has been predicted.
2. A USDA funded study in Nebraska has found that switchgrass, which can be grown on marginal land with limited fertiliser input has better than expected return on investment energy output. Around 5.4 times the energy can be hurvested as invested.
3. A study by the Smithsonian Tropical Rainforest Institute has found that, amongst other things, subsidies for corn ethanol in the US are increasing deforestation in the amazon. The report calls for govornment restraint on biofuels subsidies and for futher research funding for second generation cellulosic biofuels.

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Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite

A very interesting article was published in the Guardian today. This took my a while to find online as it is a climate change story that has moved out of the Environment section and into the World News section. That, i am sure, is going to be the way that things go.

The key claim of the article is that food prices are spiraling due to biofuels and climate change and that these effects are already politically significant in a large number of countries.

"India, Yemen, Mexico, Burkina Faso and several other countries have had, or been close to, food riots in the last year, something not seen in decades of low global food commodity prices. Meanwhile, there are shortages of beef, chicken and milk in Venezuela and other countries as governments try to keep a lid on food price inflation."

The situation was summed up best by Lester Brown:

"Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute thinktank, said: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists, who want to maintain their mobility, and its 2 billion poorest people, who are simply trying to survive, is emerging as an epic issue."

According to a Worldwatch Institute article entitled "Climate Change: The Unseen Force Behind Rising Food Prices?":

"Climate change has been attributed to greater inconsistencies in agricultural conditions, ranging from more-erratic flood and drought cycles to longer growing seasons in typically colder climates. While the increase in Earth’s temperature is making some places wetter, it is also drying out already arid farming regions close to the Equator. This year’s Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report states that “increases in the frequency of droughts and floods are projected to affect local production negatively, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitudes.” The decline in production in the face of growing demand can drive up prices in markets that may lack the technology to fight environmental hazards to overall production."

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Biofuels 'crime against humanity'.

According to the BBC:

A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.

This issue is only now reaching the headlines, where it belongs. For an organisation that has been at the forefront of awareness raising on these matter check out Biofuelwatch.

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ADM, Bunge, Cargill: Rainforest Destroyers.

Action by Rainforest Action Network (RAN)...good work guys!

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) launched a campaign today to stop U.S. agribusiness expansion in the rainforests by draping a 50-foot banner on the historic Chicago Board of Trade building at the start of this morning's trading.

These companies where targeted for there hugely distructive role in Agrofuels (a.k.a biofuels) more information on this 'solution' to climate change here.

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Email Action Alert: Biofuels, Land Confiscation, And Murder in Columbia

An urgent e-action from biofuelwatch...

There is a new email action alert on Climate Ark calling on the Colombian government to protect the rights of Afro-Caribbean, indigenous and other peasant communities and the country's rainforests against palm oil expansion, which is happening mainly to serve the growing global biofuel market. This alert was written jointly with the Colombian Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace, following a seminar in Bogota in August

Colombia is embarking on an aggressive biofuel and palm oil expansion programme, which is threatening communities and some of the most bio diverse ecosystems on earth. One of my colleagues from Biofuelwatch took part in the seminar and in a visit to one of the palm oil areas (Curvarado) last month.

This is land which legally belongs to Afro-Caribbean communities. Those people became refugees in the late 1990s, due to severe violence and repression from state forces. 113 killings have been documented. When they returned to their land, they found much of it planted with oil palms. They have cut down some of the oil palms to grow food now and are trying to set up 'biodiversity zones', but they live in constant fear of state forces and paramilitaries who work hand in hand with the palm oil companies.

There is a good article by a member of the World Rainforest Movement who also took part in the seminar and visit - you can find it at www.wrm.org.uy (click on 'Bulletin' on the left hand side and then on the article about Colombia).

The author says:

"There are few places in the world where oil palm trees are tainted with as much blood as in Curvaradó and the only way of starting to repair the outrages committed is for the Government to legally recognize these communities' rights to their lands."

A video presentation is available--from a Camp for Climate Action workshop--where a first hand witness to the violence being used talks about his trip to columbia as part of an emergency delegation (about half way through the video).

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Agrofuels (Biofuels): Addressing Some of Problems

A presentation on Agrofuels (as biofuels are being rebranded) at the Camp for Climate Action.

Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch explains a few of the reasons why biofuels are 'not quite perfect'...and in some cases a plain disaster!

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