EU proceeds with controversial biofuel plan

Fears are growing of widespread unrest in poor countries over rising food prices with street protests already leading to violence in Haiti, Egypt and The Philippines. The rush to produce more crops for biofuels to help cut emissions of greenhouse gases in motor vehicles, along with rising populations and droughts in food-producing regions, has been blamed for putting a squeeze on food supplies and prices.

The EU proposes to set itself a target to produce 10 per cent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020. This has lead to opposition from environment groups which have been warning for sometime that food supplies will be compromised. They say biofuel crops compete for land with food crops and also lead to further clearing of forests.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, has described the production of biofuels as "a crime against humanity" because of its impact on global food prices. Key food crops such as corn, wheat, sugar and palm oil all lend themselves to the production of the main biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel.

But a spokesperson for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Monday there was “no question” of backing away from the biofuels target. The European Commission’s agriculture spokesman Michael Mann says there is little danger of the proposed target causing a big shift from food production to biofuel production. He says improving farm productivity, especially in eastern Europe, will allow both food and biofuel needs to be met.

German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel backed the EU officials saying the EU target can be met in ways that “do not lead to a conflict with food or rainforests". He said greater use of food crops for feed for animals rather than for the direct production of food is a bigger problem. “The big competition is not between the use of biomass for energy and food but between feed and food," Reuters reports Gabriel as saying.

The European Commission is also currently considering the addition of safeguards to help ensure the sustainability of the target.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will host a meeting in Brazil next week to develop strategies for the sustainable production of biofuels. The FAO's Latin America and the Caribbean representative, Jose Graziano, says whether biofuels turn out to be a positive or a negative depends on how they are developed.

Further Reading

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