PHA-Exch> Biofuels: the fake climate change solution

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ben Wikler - Avaaz.org avaaz at avaaz.org


  EU and US demand for biofuels is pushing up world food prices and *
increasing* climate emissions. *We should feed people, not cars*--so join
the call for global standards to clean up the biofuels industry: *Click here
now* <http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60488085>
Each day, *820 million people in the developing world do not have enough
food to eat*1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food
riots from Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week
that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the
world's worst-off4.

*How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food.*

Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant
products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way
to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being
cleared to grow them, *most biofuels today are causing more global warming
emissions than they prevent*5, even as they push the price of corn, wheat,
and other foods out of reach for millions of people6.

Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels
boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Click
here to use our simple tool to send a message to your head of state before
this weekend's global summit on climate change in Chiba, Japan, and *help
build a global call for biofuels regulation*:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60488085

Sometimes the trade-off is stark: *filling the tank of an SUV with ethanol
requires enough corn to feed a person for a year*7. But not all biofuels are
bad; making ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is vastly more efficient than
US-grown corn, for example, and green technology for making fuel from waste
is improving rapidly.

The problem is that the EU and the US have set targets for increasing the
use of biofuels without sorting the good from the bad. As a result,
rainforests are being cleared in Indonesia to grow palm oil for European
biodiesel refineries, and global grain reserves are running dangerously low.
Meanwhile, rich-country politicians can look "green" without asking their
citizens to conserve energy, and agribusiness giants are cashing in. And if
nothing changes, the situation will only get worse.

*What's needed are strong global standards* that encourage better biofuels
and shut down the trade in bad ones. Such standards are under development by
a number of coalitions8, but they will only become mandatory if there's a
big enough public outcry. It's time to move: this Friday through Saturday,
the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than
75% of the world's carbon emissions9, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the
G8's climate change discussions. Before the summit, let's raise a global cry
for change on biofuels:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60488085

A call for change before this week's summit won't end the food crisis, or
stop global warming. But it's a critical first step. By confronting false
solutions and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that we want to
do the right thing, not the easy thing.

As Kate, an Avaaz member in Colorado, wrote about biofuels, *"Turning food
into oil when people are already starving? My car isn't more important than
someone's hungry child."*

It's time to put the life of our fellow people, and our planet, above the
politics and profits that too often drive international decision-making.
This will be a long fight. But it's one that we join eagerly--because the
stakes are too high to do anything else.


*SOURCES:*

[1] World Food Programme. "Hunger Facts." Accessed 10 March 2008.
http://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/facts/hunger_facts.asp

[2] The Sunday Herald (Scotland). "2008: The year of global food crisis." 9
March 2008.
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php

[3] The Australian: "Biofuels threaten 'billions of lives'" 28 February,
2008.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23336840-11949,00.html

[4] AFP: "WFP chief warns EU about biofuels." 7 March 2008.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpCFf3spGcDQUuILK5JFV-6NL1Dg

[5] New York Times: "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat." 8 February 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html

[6] The Times: "Rush for biofuels threatens starvation on a global scale." 7
March 2008.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500954.ece ...
also see BBC: "In graphics: World warned on food price spiral." 10 March
2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7284196.stm

[7] The Economist: "The end of cheap food." 6 December 2007.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10252015

[8] See http://www.globalbioenergy.org, http://cgse.epfl.ch/page70341.html,
and http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3489640.ece.

[9] Government of Japan. "Percentage of global carbon dioxide emissions (FY
2003) contributed by G20 nations."
http://www.env.go.jp/earth/g8/en/g20/index_popup.html

 http://www.avaaz.org.
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