Biofuelwatch Presentation for CBD Side Event, 3rd July 2007

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AgrofuelImpacts

www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

AGROFUELS

Protests against destruction of forests and community lands for palm oil, pulp and timber in Sumatra, Photo by Feri Irawan, WALHI Jambi

What are agrofuels?

“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.”

MST, Landless Workers' Movement, Brazil

Agrofuels are accelerating climate change

Deforestation for oil palms, Colombia

Fires to clear land for palm oil, KalimantanPhoto by Nordin, Save our Borneo

Peat destruction S.E. Asia

Drainage: Dry peat - oxidises and, over time, emits all its carbon as CO2. 42-50 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

Source: Summary for Policy Makers, Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, May 2007

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.

Amazon Deforestation

Santarem, Para, Brazil, Photo: Greenpeace, Daniel Beltra

Soya expansion drives Amazon destruction

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:

● Switch from soya to corn for ethanol in the US ● Sugar ethanol pushing soya into the Amazon ● Soya biodiesel expansion

Annual fires in the Amazon

Fires and deforestation in Northern Mato Grosso, 2002

Satellite image from Earth Observatory, NASA, credited Jacques Desdoitres, NASA GFSC

What about Second Generation Agrofuels?

Fischer-Tropsch biodiesel: Similar technology as for 'synfuels' from coal.

Cellulosic ethanol: Genetically engineered microbes, fungi, enzymes, crops and trees to break through the protective system of cell walls and turn biomass into liquid.

No positive energy gains at present.No environmental or safety assessments.

The next agrofuel feedstock?

Eucalyptus Plantations in Uruguay and Bahia, Brazil

The human cost of monoculture expansion

Repression against farmers trying to defend their land against soya expansion in Paraguay, 2004 – One of the countries now expanding soya even faster due to the agrofuel boom.Photos from www.grr.org.ar

Sugar ethanol in Brazil“Workers do not have any control over the total amount of their production and as a consequence over their salary, as they are paid according to the quantity cut and not for hours worked.  This situation has serious implications for the health of workers and has caused the death of workers through fatigue and the excessive labor that requires cutting up to 20 tons per day.”

From Declaration by CPT, MST, Via Campesina and others

Photo: radiomundoreal

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

Defending community lands against palm oil companies

Choco, Colombia – 'Humanitarian and Biodiversity Zones'

Voices from the South 2

“These trends will put serious pressure on Africancommunities 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

Some of the problems with sustainability standards

● No true consultation with people in the global South;

● No proposals which address macro-impacts;● No blueprint for true sustainability guarantees;

Meantime, communities, food, forests and climate suffer due to government targets and incentives.