Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
This displacement effect - of fuel crops displacing food cultivation,
which then moves elsewhere - is the main environmental objection of
levelled against biofuels by NGOs and others. A year after the UK intro-
duced its Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) in 2008, Friends
of the Earth complained that in its calculations, the government ignores
“how much forest is being cut down to replace food crops that have been
displaced in order to grow biofuels for the UK”.
Fuel versus food
The way in which fuel crops may be displacing food crops and leading
to additional deforestation is part of the wider argument over whether
biofuels are overstraining food and indeed water resources. This argument
came to the fore as food prices, along with other commodity prices, came
to a peak in the first part of 2008. The US administration and the European
Commission, which had both by that time committed themselves to ambi-
tious biofuels targets, admitted biofuels had pushed food prices up, but
were only responsible for a mere three percent of the increase. However, a
2008 study commissioned although not officially endorsed by the World
Bank blamed biofuels for 75 percent of the 140 percent rise in the price of
a given basket of commodities over the period 2002-08.
Sharper criticism came from Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food between 2000 and 2008. He called crop-
based biofuels “a crime against humanity”. Typical of the strong opposi-
tion by many NGOs to biofuels was the Oxfam report in 2008, entitled
“Another Inconvenient Truth” (echoing the title of Al Gore's book on
climate change).
This argued that biofuels were solving neither the climate crisis nor the
fuel crisis, but instead were contributing to food insecurity and inflation.
“If the fuel value of a crop exceeds its food value, then it will be used for
fuel instead”, the report found. “Thanks to generous subsidies and tax
breaks, that is exactly what is happening … rich countries spent $15bn
last year supporting biofuels while blocking cheaper Brazilian ethanol,
which is far less damaging for global food security”, the Oxfam study said.
The tension between fuel and food would disappear if second-generation
biofuels could be properly exploited. As a result, research into them is being
stepped up, both in terms of public money and regulation. The European
Union has passed a renewables directive, requiring each of its 27 member
states to ensure by 2020 that 10 percent of all its transport fuel consumption
