Biofuels

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Environmental campaigners are looking beyond the question of whether biofuels produce more or less greenhouse gases or are more or less efficient than traditional petrol and diesel. They say that the most serious problems for the environment are the effects of biofuel production on biodiversity and food production.

Fuels v food

People who promote biofuels argue that they need not undermine the production of food, because they can:

• Be made from parts of the plant left over once they have been used to make food, such as rice straw, wheat straw and maize husks



• Grow on land that is too poor for growing food



• Be grown in rotation with food crops

Finally, they say, people lack food not because it is unavailable but because they are too poor to buy it. Therefore, if poor farmers in developing countries can switch to growing biofuel crops, they may end up having more money to buy food.

Those who are concerned that biofuel production will undermine food supplies agree that poverty lies behind hunger, but argue that the focus on fuel will make people in developing countries even more insecure. This is because the market will be skewed towards those who can afford to run cars, rather than towards those who are struggling to feed themselves.

Forests at risk

Of equal, if not greater, concern is the fact that increased demand for biodiesel is resulting in the destruction of forests that are vital in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, as well as being a habitat for diverse species of plants and animals on which many people depend. According to Friends of the Earth, for example, 'Between 1985 and 2000 the development of oil palm plantations was responsible for an estimated 87% of deforestation in Malaysia.' This pattern is being reproduced in many other countries in South East Asia.

No-one opposes the recycling of restaurant fat to produce biodiesel but it seems worse than pointless to cut down trees that are mopping up CO2 in order to produce a supposedly green fuel.

Early days

It is still early days for the biofuels industry but the pressure for profits and to maintain an established lifestyle for those who can afford it means that decisions are being made now from which there will be no going back.

Many environmental campaigners argue that, simply in terms of the enormous amount of energy we use, the focus on biofuels does not add up. One biologist has calculated that the amount of fuel we burn each year would take 400 years to replenish if we were to produce the plants and animals needed to do so. If that is indeed the case, then no other solution makes sense except to cut down on how much fuel we use.

Is the focus on biofuels going to turn out to be a deadly distraction from the tough political decision to reduce the amount of energy we use? Or will technology come up with enough answers to enable us to travel to our heart's content without sabotaging our food supply and the future of our planet?