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Publication:
16
February, 2010
MEALS
PER GALLON - THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL
BIOFUELS
ON PEOPLE & GLOBAL HUNGER - GENDER
Action Aid, February 2010
°
Industrial biofuels fuels made on an industrial scale from agricultural crops
have been put forward as an answer to energy security, climate change and
rural development. ActionAid believes they are unlikely to be the solution to
any of these challenges.
In fact they have been a major cause of the food and hunger crisis, which is set to get worse. Industrial biofuels are currently made from maize, wheat, sugar cane and oil seeds such as palm oil, soy and rapeseed. The rapidly rising demand for crops for fuel has put them into competition with those grown for food, driving food prices higher and affecting what and how much people eat in developing countries. This is a significant issue in a world where a billion people are already going hungry.
Despite
this, in 2008 European Union (EU) member states committed themselves to
obtaining 10% of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020. Member states
will fill almost all of this commitment through industrial biofuels, meaning
the 10% target is, in effect, a biofuels target.
Consumption of industrial biofuels in the EU will jump four-fold. As much as
two-thirds are likely to be imported, the majority from developing countries.
The 10% target is not the only driver of increased consumption in the EU. In
2006, it was conservatively estimated that the EU biofuel industry was
supported by financial incentives to the sum of 4.4 billion. Assuming the same
level of subsidies continues, the industry would be subsidised to the tune of
about 13.7 billion per annum to meet the 2020 target.
The case against industrial biofuels has been mounting for a number of years. This is borne out by evidence in this report, collected from the countries in which ActionAid works. This report focuses on three main broad impacts.
1. Implications for food prices and hunger.
Biofuels are conservatively estimated to have been responsible for at least 30% of the global food price spike in 2008. It was estimated in 2008 that the food crisis had already pushed a further 100 million people into poverty and driven about 30 million more people into hunger. If all global biofuel targets are met, it is predicted that food prices could rise by up to an additional 76% by 2020. An estimated 600 million extra people may be hungry because of industrial biofuels by this date.
2. Local impacts and hunger
Industrial biofuels are having disastrous local impacts on food security and land rights in many of the communities where they are grown.
The
scale of the current land grab is astonishing. In just five African countries,
1.1 million hectares have been given over to industrial biofuels an area the
size of Belgium. All of the biofuel produced on this land is for export. EU
companies have already acquired or requested at least five million hectares of
land for industrial biofuels in developing countries an area greater than the
size of Denmark.
The local impacts range from the displacement of people, rising local food prices and food scarcity, broken promises by the companies about job opportunities and lack of consultation and compensation. Some have described this land grab as the next era of colonialism in poor nations.
3. Making climate change and hunger worse
Many industrial biofuels do not have lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil fuels. This is because:
converting forests, peatlands or permanent grasslands to grow biofuel crops is
an important cause of GHGs (direct land use change);
converting existing food crop land to biofuel crops often has a displacement
effect; the original land use is pushed onto land in new areas, such as forests
(indirect land use change). The new land use may have a GHG emission impact,
much the same as with direct land use change;
nitrous oxides (N20) are released by the fertilisers required to grow
industrial biofuels. N20 is 300 times more powerful as a GHG compared to carbon
dioxide. Industrial biofuels are also not good value for money. In fact, they
are the least cost-effective way of saving GHG emissions compared to other uses
of the feedstock (the crops that go to make biofuel). Industrial biofuels are
therefore a red herring in the fight against climate change, and will compound
hunger and poverty for the poor in the future.
The future the alarming scale of the land grab
Global
biofuel consumption is estimated to jump from about 70 billion litres in 2008
to 250 billion litres in 2020. For the EU, the increase will be steeper from
13 billion litres to about 55 billion litres.
To meet the EU 10% target alone, the total land area directly required to grow industrial biofuels in developing countries could reach 17.5 million hectares, well over half the size of Italy. Additional land will also be required in developed nations, displacing food and animal feed crops onto land in new areas, often in developing countries.
We are at a turning point. Renewed commercial interest in industrial biofuels is beginning to emerge now that the price of oil has reached about US$80/barrel. Either we recognise the problems inherent in industrial biofuels now, or we open the door to a future for the worlds poor where the hunger and climate crises continue to grow. To stop this trend, the EU and member states must:
place
a moratorium on the further expansion of industrial biofuel production and
investment;
ensure that member states do not lock-in industrial biofuels to their 2010
national action plans;
reduce transport and energy consumption;
end targets and financial incentives for industrial biofuels;
support small-scale sustainable biofuels in the EU and abroad.
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