Oxfam condemns biofuel promotion policies in new report
Wed 25 June 2008
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Current biofuel policies are not contributing to climate or fuel security but are instead adding to food insecurity and price inflation according to the international development agency, Oxfam.
Oxfam's report - "Another Inconvenient Truth" - says that rich country biofuel policies have increased the poverty of the world's poorest people by contributing up to 30% to the global rise in food prices. Oxfam urges the UK Government to reverse its policy of setting mandatory sales targets and says that it should also press the EU to follow suit by cancelling plans for a 10% biofuel target by 2020.
Report author Robert Bailey, Oxfam's biofuels adviser, said: "It would be shameful if the government decided to plough on ahead regardless of mounting evidence exposing the dangerous short-comings of biofuels. Rich countries' biofuel policies - including thiose of the UK - are actually helping to accelerate climate change and deepen poverty and hunger. Rich countries' demands for more biofuels in their transport fuels are causing spiralling food inflation."
Oxfam's report says that by 2020, as a result of the EU's 10% biofuel target, carbon emissions from changing land use for palm oil could be almost 70 times greater than the annual savings the EU hopes to achieve from biofuels by that time.
Oxfam challenges the assertion that biofuels can help rich countries' ensure their fuel security, as has been argued by supporters of biofuels. Robert Bailey said: "Even if the entire world's supply of grains and sugars were converted into ethanol tomorrow - in the process giving us all even less to eat - we would only be able to replace 40% of our petrol and diesel consumption. Rich country governments should not use biofuels as an excuse to avoid urgent decisions about how to reduce their unfettered demand for petrol and diesel."
Oxfam's report was published in advance of the 'Gallagher Review' into the indirect effects of biofuels - commissioned by the Government earlier this year - which is expected to be revealed shortly.
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