www.tqnyc.org

sseechange.com/blog/

Biofuels: An Unfolding CatastropheDeepak Rughani, Biofuelwatch. UCL Feb 2010

Climate Change

1979 to 2007 reduction is around 1.2 million square km of ice(UK is approx 245,000 sq km)

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC)

Peak Oil

Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, ASPO

Converging Crises

Damian Carrington New scientist environmental blog

www.distance-education.org

FINANCIAL CRASH

FALSE vs REAL Solutions(Symptomatic vs Fundamental)

• Economy Bailouts, stimulus packages

• Energy security ?, ROCs

• Climate Climate Bill, Creative GHG accounting!

Underlying assumption; sustaining our consumption patterns is our

prerogative Infinite growth, Malthus?

Food

Comm

unitie

s

BiodiversityClimat

e

AgrofuelImpacts

Agrofuels: where 4 concerns intersect

Food Poverty

• Lester Brown

• Food price spikes linked to hunger and civil unrest 2008 wheat and other grains 2009 (recession) 2010 Sugar, 128% above 2009 prices – 29 yr high

• 2007: 860m living in food poverty 2009: Over 1 billion(Leaked 2008 report from WB indicated that over 70% of driving force

is agrofuels)

RSPO?, Rapeseed / wheat / corn?

Evictions and human rights abuses are no bar to meeting the EU's definition of 'sustainable biofuels'

Brazil: Eviction on 120 families forsugar cane ethanol

http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/patzek/BiofuelQA/Brazil/brazil.htm

Colombia: Military and paramilitaryrepression of Afro-Colombian communitiesin the palm oil areas of the Bajo Atrato

Photo: Intercelestial Commission for Justivceand Peace

Biodiversity LossesDeforestation for palm oil

Sarawak, MalaysiaFriends of the Earth Europe Papua New Guinea

ColombiaKlaus Schenck, Salva la Selga

Bugala Island, Uganda

Joseph Fargione, scientist for the Nature Conservancy“All the biofuels we use now cause clearing of natural ecosystems for agriculture. Adding energy production to our current and growing demand for food production inevitably requires more land to be converted to agriculture, whether or not the biofuel is grown directly on that land.

So biofuels either directly or indirectly cause land clearing, which releases carbon to the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. This is the biofuel carbon debt.”

Peat expert Professor Siegert of Munich University commenting on palm oil power plants in Germany: "We were able to prove that the making of these plantations and the burning of the rain forests and peat areas emits many thousands of times as much CO2 as we then are able to prevent by using palm oil. And that is a disastrous balance for the climate."

2nd Generation BiofuelsWhere will all this biomass come from?

• Vast new industrial tree plantations Industrial tree plantations displace forests and other

ecosystems as well as communities and food production. They require large quantities of pesticides and fertilisers

• More genetic engineering Genetically engineered trees and GE microbes.

* More soil erosion and desertification worldwide Crop and forestry residues are to be used for making

‘advanced biofuels’, stripping the soils of fertility and biodiversity. One scientific letter states that using maize residues for biofuels could increase soil erosion 100-fold.

Tree Plantation in South Africa: photo: Wally Menne

Risks of large-scale ecosystem collapse

African Palm in IndonesiaGHGs from deforestation contribute20% global GHG emissions (IPCC AR4) 70,000 fires burn in Amazon,

September 2007. NASA

IPCC AR4: Deforestation = 20% GHG

Energy balances…and how the EU claims that biofuels deliver GHG reductions?

Palm oil, MalaysiaCorn for ethanol, USCorn for ethanol, US

Soya, Brazil

30% reductions?

How can the EU claim 'greenhouse gas savings' from biofuels?

Step 1

Ignore all carbon emissions from indirect land-use change.If a plantation company in Malaysia sells palm oil froman older plantation (for which they destroyed rainforestin the past) for biofuels, claim that no land has been deforested for biofuels – even if the same company burns and cuts down more rainforest for a new plantation to meet existing demands for food and cosmetics.

Step 2:

Allow companies to provide all the information themselves and to pay their own auditors. Alsoallow for bilateral agreements. This means the EUcan sign an agreement for example with Brazilunder which all biofuels from Brazil have to be classed as climate-friendly – never mind thedestruction of the Amazon and other ecosystems.

Step 3:

Claim there are positive indirect emission savings. Waste-products from biofuel refining can be fed to cattle. Hence, assume that the more biofuels we produce, the less soya we need to grow to feed our cattle and the less land-use change and agricultural emissions there will be overall.

“By driving, you will be saving the planet. And the more you drive, the

more you prevent catastrophic climate change.”

Biopact ( 29th October 2007)

So convinced by their own creative accounting…

And even rapeseed oil… Paul Crutzen, Oct 2007

Nobel Prize winning chemist

Scientific research of Rapeseed Oil and Maize biofuels: Life-cycles emissions of Rapeseed Oil and Maize produce up to 70% and 50% more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels.

This contrasts with the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership figures of a 45-65% carbon emission saving for oil seed rape and 25-40% saving for corn ethanol.

Who is Lobbying Government?

• Convergence of six macro interest groups:

Big agribusiness

Biotech industries

Fossil fuel corportations

Transportation industries

Venture capitalists

Power generation (electricity and heat)

Lobbying at UNFCCC level is now getting very sophisticated; High level lobbying to add industrial agriculture as a climate solution!

Legislating for a Biofuels Boom& Expert Reports

Renewable Energy Directive (RED) for road transport, 10% and overall 20% by 2020

FoE report April 2009 shows that LUC from biodiesel could have doubled GHG emissions since RTFO inception one year earlier = additional 500,000 cars!

Jan 2010: RFA reports just 4% biofuels for road transport and 20% overall meets the (weak) RTFO sustainability standards. Malaysian palm oil linked to 130 year carbon debt and direct and indirect LUC not accounted for.

A Whole New Market…Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs)

Biofuels & biomass:2 x Onshore wind1.33 x Recycled veg oil

Greenpeace blog.greenenergytv.com/blog/greenenergytv/0/0...

NGO Response?

• Moratorium Call

• Lobbying against RED; minor concession gained with RTFO

• Challenging ROCs

• Individual campaigns against biofuel and biomass power station applications

• Direct Action from several activist groups

Anti-Biofuel Protests…

Anti-Agrofuels: the clock’s ticking…

"The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through thecomplacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creativemaladjustment of a nonconforming minority." 

Martin Luther King,

Strength to Love