Biofuels and their Impacts on Climate, People, and Forests

1. Biofuels and their impacts on Global Climate, People and ForestsBiofuelwatchwww.biofuelwatch.org.ukintroduced by Dr Andrew Boswell, biofuelwatch and UK Green Party councillor on Norfolk County Council Biofuels and their impacts

2. Summary • The UK RTFO / EU policy context • Public policy debate has been sidelined • Impacts on People & Voices from the South • Impacts of Ecology • Climate Change background - Agrofuels / biofuels are accelerating climate change • Certification = no viable answer • Descending the transport emissions curve - Demand reduction is key Biofuels and their impacts

3. The UK RTFO • Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) mandates for all road fuels: April 2008 2.5% biofuel by volume April 2009 3.75% April 2010 5.0% (EU 5.75%) Consumers will not be able to buy fuel without biofuel after April 2008 Biofuels and their impacts

4. US / EU Biofuel Policy – going off the graph EU – 10% by 2020 (1% now) US – 20% by 2020 (4% now) 2020 2010 Biofuels and their impacts

5. Agrofuels – no public policy debate • Even current 1% EU penetration has taken us into ‘downstream’ phase of implementation • Yet, there has been no consistent or complete scientific and policy scrutiny • Bypassed by Governments and industry • Public policy debate is urgently needed – moratorium is needed to facilitate this Biofuels and their impacts

6. Mega-scale Agrofuel drivers • Government and corporate subsidy and promotion • Fits “Business as usual” policies and paradigms • Year-on-year economic growth • Avoid unpopular “demand reduction” politics • Short term “energy security” fix • Less pressure on Oil hotspots – Mid-East/Iraq • Stabilising Oil price? • EU / US “Oil independence” • New global mega-industry and infrastructure • agribusiness, biotech, and chemical sectors • refining, tankage and shipping sectors • commodity markets (eg Palm Oil, sugar, corn) Biofuels and their impacts

7. Agrofuel issues • Greenhouse gas (GHG) balances • Environmental impacts: Deforestation, loss of habitats / biodiversity, water depletion, soil erosion, chemicals • Social impacts: Poverty, land grabbing, land conflicts, human rights, labour, food security and sovereignty Biofuels and their impacts

8. Recent Publications http://www.grain.org/seedling_files/seed-07-07-en.pdf http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/ABN_Agro.pdf http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/agrofuels_reality_check.pdf Biofuels and their impacts

9. Biofuels and their impacts

10. Impacts on People • Use of bioenergy in rural economies • Could help – especially women BUT • Large scale monocultures (eg 11,200 people to be evicted by Sun Biofuels Jatropha plantation in Tanzania) • Governments welcome in large companies to boost export market • Land grabbing • Governments allow companies to get around land laws • Some 2 billion hectares of Southern land up for recolonisation Biofuels and their impacts

11. From African BN document • “In Uganda, there is an apparent failure to recognise that by encouraging a favourable climate for agrofuels, foreign companies focussed on export are likely to take over the direction of biofuel production” Timothy Byakola, Uganda • “The most fertile lands, with best access to water are being targeted, even though these lands are already being used for food production by small-scale farmers” Abdallah Mkindee, Tanzania Biofuels and their impacts

12. From African BN document • “There seems to be a lack of clarity over whether investment and targets are aimed at production of biofuels for the Zambian market or for export. It seems that companies such as D1 Oils may be promoting biofuels as a domestic energy strategy, in order to open the door to amenable legislation, while really intending to focus biofuel production on the export market”. Matonga Mundia, Zambia Biofuels and their impacts

13. Impacts on People • Human rights • Pesticide use (especially with GM varieties etc) • Deforestation causing health problems • Land conflicts – paramilitaries in Indonesia and Colombia • Violent evictions and murders • Displaced peoples • UN warns up 60 million biofuel refugees • Displaced to less than subsistence rural existence, or to the urban poor in mega cities Biofuels and their impacts

14. Food vs Fuel FAO Agricultural Outlook, July 2007 • “increased demand for biofuels is causing fundamental changes to agricultural markets that could drive up world prices for many farm products” FAO, September 2007 • “Developing countries face serious social unrest as they struggle to cope with soaring food prices” Biofuels and their impacts

15. Food vs Fuel • Global prices pushed up by biofuel demand • Fuel/freight  • Low-Income Food-Deficit countries (LIFDCs) ::Social unrest / food riots • Feed prices  • Huge industry denial • Food sovereignty • Best land taken for agrofuels • Even import poor quality food Biofuels and their impacts

16. The right to food • The Special Rapporteur also calls the attention of the General Assembly to two emerging issues: the first is the issue of the potentially grave negative impact of biofuels (or agrofuels) on the right to food. The second is the urgent need to improve protection for people who are fleeing from hunger, famine and starvation in their countries of origin and face numerous human rights violations if they try to cross borders into developed countries. • The Special Rapporteur is gravely concerned that biofuels will bring hunger in their wake. The sudden, ill-conceived, rush to convert food — such as maize, wheat, sugar and palm oil — into fuels is a recipe for disaster. There are serious risks of creating a battle between food and fuel that will leave the poor and hungry in developing countries at the mercy of rapidly rising prices for food, land and water. If agro-industrial methods are pursued to turn food into fuel, then there are risks that unemployment and violations of the right to food may result, unless specific measures are put in place to ensure that biofuels contribute to the development of small-scale peasant and family farming. 22 August 2007, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler – UN General Assembly Biofuels and their impacts

17. Biofuels and their impacts

18. Ecological Impacts • Massive land use change • Renton Righelato and Dominick V. Spracklen, Science, August 2007 • Ecological restoration and forestation would sequester 2-9 more carbon than biofuels Biofuels and their impacts

19. Crop burning / Forest fires / Soya http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Biofuels and their impacts

20. Ecological Impacts Biodiversity • Biodiversity hotspots hidden by official gazetting in Malaysia/Indonesia • Biofuel threat to Great Apes highlighted by Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey and others Set-aside in EU – creating a gap in environmental management • 45% of Europe’s butterflies, 80% declines in bee diversity and 70% declines in the diversity of wild flowers • France – little bustard,Austrian bird of prey – depend on set-aside for survival Biofuels and their impacts

21. Biofuels and their impacts

22. Hundreds of NGOs in Latin America, Asia and Africa have spoken out against large-scale biofuel monocultures. Biofuels and their impacts

23. from a declaration by Latin American NGOs • “We want food sovereignty, not biofuels…While Europeans maintain their lifestyle based on automobile culture, the population of Southern countries will have less and less land for food crops and will loose its food sovereignty…We are therefore appealing to the governments and people of the European Union countries to seek solutions that do not worsen the already dramatic social and environmental situation of the peoples of Latin America, Asia and Africa.  “ Biofuels and their impacts

24. Sawit Watch, Indonesian NGO • “Palm oil for biofuels increases social conflicts and undermines land reform in Indonesia…It is unavoidable that, as a consequence of Europe's biofuels policy, the land rights of indigenous peoples and local communities will be relinquished further, and that food security will be undermined and lands for agricultural purposes and subsistence livelihoods will diminish.” Biofuels and their impacts

25. Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria • “It is a push by industry to make another scramble for Africa, grab the land and continue with business as usual. The industrial bio-energy push to do increased bio-energy demand will be nothing other than an effort at extending the frontiers of neo-colonialism in its continued march on the back of the fabled market forces” Biofuels and their impacts

26. Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) • “We can't call this a ‘bio-fuels program’. We certainly can't call it a ‘bio-diesel program’. Such phrases use the prefix ‘bio-‘ to subtly imply that the energy in question comes from ‘life’ in general. This is illegitimate and manipulative. We need to find a term in every language that describes the situation more accurately, a term like agro-fuel. This term refers specifically to energy created from plant products grown through agriculture.” Biofuels and their impacts

27. Biofuels and their impacts

28. What emissions drive CC? • Deforestation, agriculture and peat • Anthropogenic energy –only 60% From Stern Report Biofuels and their impacts

29. Arctic Ice 1979-2007 See video at : http://tinyurl.com/28keqr Biofuels and their impacts

30. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Arctic 2007 Summer Ice Melt Non-linear effect? Biofuels and their impacts

31. Descending the fossil emissions curve - Demand reduction is key 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Biofuels being sold at this level – BUT IS THE OPPOSITE TRUE? Current EU energy policy 90% carbon emission reduction needed URGENTLY! Energy efficiency and energy reduction Carbon management – use less carbon Decarbonise – switch from carbon completely 1990 2000 2010 2020 Biofuels and their impacts

32. Do Agrofuels save emissions? • Agrofuel infrastructure is built on Fossil Fuel infrastructure • Intensive agriculture – fossil fuel based – fertilisers, farm equipment, Nitrous oxide emissions (300* CO2), soil carbon emissions • Feedstock transport, shipping, ports • Refining (coal, gas fired plants!) ; process chemicals Biofuels and their impacts

33. N20 needs further study • microbes convert N fertiliser to N2O • NEW STUDY by Nobel prizewinner Paul Crutzen, August 2007 : 3 to 5 per cent = twice the widely accepted figure of 2 per cent used by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). • oilseed rape biodiesel, for example, is up to 70% worse for the climate than fossil fuel diesel (also corn ethanol) • UK and EU Biofuels policy and certification schemes in scientific doubt • N2O emissions – chemical fertilizer impact greater in tropics • Both EU home grown biofuels and tropical imports Biofuels and their impacts

34. UK Government figures NOW in complete scientific doubt • From LowCVP presentation to UK Bioenergy conference Sept 2007 Unaccounted for N20 ??? Biofuels and their impacts

35. UK Government figures NOW in complete scientific doubt • From LowCVP presentation to UK Bioenergy conference Sept 2007 Corn Ethanol -50% Oil Seed rape biodiesel -70% Biofuels and their impacts

36. Massive destruction beyond N2O - Agrofuels are accelerating climate change Fires to clear land for palm oil, KalimantanPhoto by Nordin, Save our Borneo Deforestationfor oil palms, Colombia

37. Peat drainage and destruction Drainage • Dry peat - oxidises and, over time, emits all its carbon as CO2. 42-50 billion tonnes of carbon stored in those SE Asian peatlands. Fires • Many set by plantation companies, greatly accelerate the loss of carbon. • Of the 27.1 million hectares of peatland in South-east Asia, 12 million hectares are deforested and mostly drained. Biofuels and their impacts

38. Agrofuels as a new driver of peatland destruction Indonesia plans 20 million hectares new oil palm plantations to meet biodiesel demand. $17.4 billion investment deals in Indonesian palm oil agreed this year. According to 2006 FAO report, growth in European rapeseed oil biodiesel has significantly pushed up global palm oil prices. Biofuels and their impacts

39. Deforestation • “with partial deforestation the entire landscape could become drier and a domino effect could occur producing a ‘tipping point’ affecting the whole forest”. Conclusion of recent scientific conference • Amazon drying out – die-back threat increasing - 120 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide Biofuels and their impacts

40. Amazon Deforestation and Drought Deforestation in Novo Progreso, Brazil ; Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace/AP Amazon drought 2005, Lake Rei Biofuels and their impacts

41. Massive emission exports from industralised nations to global South Massive land-use change in global South, and crop commodity traffic Biofuels and their impacts

42. Emission trickery Exporting emissions from Northern transport to Southern agriculture and landuse NB: Soil + Peat not included Biofuels and their impacts

43. The Climate Context • 1st generation biofuels • Scientific doubt on N20 for all fuel supply chains including EU oilseed rape • Already a climate disaster • Eg Indonesian peat lands • Deforestation tropics • Yet mass-scale infrastructure and investment ready for • 2nd generation biofuels • 15-20 years to develop • BUT emissions must be cut now • Biohazards (even now in R&D) • Deforestation boreal and temporate •   Transport sector DEMAND REDUCTION We are currently in ‘first generation’ world – there is a gap to any viable second generation – ‘first generation’ problems must be addressed Biofuels and their impacts

44. Biofuels and their impacts

45. Certification schemes • Greenhouse gas (GHG) balances • URGENT need for full lifecycle, whole system (macro) carbon balance studies • Direct and indirect environmental impacts: Deforestation, loss of habitats / biodiversity, water depletion, soil erosion, chemicals • Direct and indirect social impacts: Poverty, land conflicts, human rights, labour, food security and sovereignty Biofuels and their impacts

46. Certification context • Governments’ response to no public policy debate is to develop ‘certification schemes’ or ‘sustainability criteria’ • Calls for international scheme (UK Govt., Ford etc) Biofuels and their impacts

47. Sustainability criteria • Driven by interests of industry and government • Displacement / leakage not handled • Existing agriculture displaced by agrofuels moves into new areas • Macro impacts through commodity price shifts not handled • Amazon deforestation ←→ soy price • US Corn for ethanol displaces US soy => soy price • EU oilseed rape use causes palm oil prices causes palm oil expansion Biofuels and their impacts

48. Biofuels and their impacts

49. Descending the transport emissions curve - Demand reduction is key 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Current EU energy policy Reduce vehicle emissions by 50% - smaller, more efficient vehicles 90% carbon emission reduction needed URGENTLY! Reduce journeys – planning, modal shift, decouple transport from economy Reduce liquid fuel – plug-in hybrids Change Supply - Concentrating Solar Power ? 1990 2000 2010 2020 Biofuels and their impacts

50. Biofuels and their impacts