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Biofuels: An Unfolding Catastrophe Deepak Rughani, Biofuelwatch. UCL Feb 2010. www.tqnyc.org . sseechange.com/blog/. Climate Change. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). 1979 to 2007 reduction is around 1.2 million square km of ice (UK is approx 245,000 sq km) . Peak Oil.

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  1. Biofuels: An Unfolding CatastropheDeepak Rughani, Biofuelwatch. UCL Feb 2010 www.tqnyc.org sseechange.com/blog/

  2. Climate Change University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) 1979 to 2007 reduction is around 1.2 million square km of ice (UK is approx 245,000 sq km)

  3. Peak Oil Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, ASPO

  4. Converging Crises Damian Carrington New scientist environmental blog FINANCIAL CRASH www.distance-education.org

  5. 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?

  6. Agrofuels: where 4 concerns intersect Climate Biodiversity Agrofuel Impacts Communities Food

  7. 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?

  8. Evictions and human rights abuses are no bar to meeting the EU's definition of 'sustainable biofuels' Brazil: Eviction on 120 families for sugar cane ethanol http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/patzek/ BiofuelQA/Brazil/brazil.htm Colombia: Military and paramilitary repression of Afro-Colombian communities in the palm oil areas of the Bajo Atrato Photo: Intercelestial Commission for Justivce and Peace

  9. Biodiversity LossesDeforestation for palm oil Sarawak, Malaysia Friends of the Earth Europe Papua New Guinea Colombia Klaus Schenck, Salva la Selga Bugala Island, Uganda

  10. 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 Siegertof Munich University commenting on palm oil power plants in Germany: "We were able to prove that themaking 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."

  11. 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. 2nd Generation BiofuelsWhere will all this biomass come from?

  12. Tree Plantation in South Africa: photo: Wally Menne

  13. Risks of large-scale ecosystem collapse African Palm in Indonesia GHGs from deforestation contribute 20% global GHG emissions (IPCC AR4) 70,000 fires burn in Amazon, September 2007. NASA IPCC AR4: Deforestation = 20% GHG

  14. Energy balances…and how the EU claims that biofuels deliver GHG reductions? Soya, Brazil Corn for ethanol, US Palm oil, Malaysia 30% reductions?

  15. 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 from an older plantation (for which they destroyed rainforest in 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.

  16. Step 2: Allow companies to provide all the information themselves and to pay their own auditors. Also allow for bilateral agreements. This means the EU can sign an agreement for example with Brazil under which all biofuels from Brazil have to be classed as climate-friendly – never mind the destruction 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.

  17. So convinced by their own creative accounting… “By driving, you will be saving the planet. And the more you drive, the more you prevent catastrophic climate change.” Biopact ( 29th October 2007)

  18. And even rapeseed oil…Paul Crutzen, Oct 2007Nobel 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.

  19. 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!

  20. 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.

  21. A Whole New Market…Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) blog.greenenergytv.com/ blog/greenenergytv/0/0... Greenpeace Biofuels & biomass: 2 x Onshore wind 1.33 x Recycled veg oil

  22. 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

  23. Anti-Agrofuels: the clock’s ticking… Anti-Biofuel Protests…

  24. "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

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