Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 10 • Number 3 • 22nd February 2010

Development Activists take Aim at EU Renewable Energy Targets

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The EU’s ambitious goal of sourcing 10 percent of its transport fuel needs from renewable sources by 2020 could lead to widespread famine in the developing world, according to a new report by UK-based development organisation ActionAid.

The report accuses the EU of inadvertently incentivising biofuels companies to push food producers off of agricultural land in Africa, Central America, and Asia. The consequences of European biofuel targets, the report says, could be up to 100 million more hungry people, increased food prices and landlessness.

The EU target was established in December 2008, when leaders agreed that the use of renewables - including biofuels, hydrogen and green electricity - should be increased to help minimise the use of fossil fuels in transportation. But since then, concerns have been raised over the possibility that increased biofuel production could result in massive deforestation and have severe implications for food security, as energy crops replace other land uses.

“For every 1 percent rise in the price of food, 16 million more poor people are made hungry,” the ActionAid report reads. The International Monetary Fund estimates that biofuels were responsible for 20-30 percent of the 2008 global food crisis, when 125 million tonnes of cereals were diverted into biofuel production.

Primary source crops for biofuels currently consist of maize, wheat, sugar cane, sugar beet, palm, soy, sunflowers, wheat, and rapeseed. The ActionAid report estimates that by 2020 these crops will divert increasing amounts of food away from the developing world as EU biofuel consumption quadruples, with two thirds of the product being sourced in poor countries.

“To meet the EU 10 percent target, the total land area directly required to grow industrial biofuels in developing countries could reach 17.5 million hectares, over half the size of Italy,” the report says. “Additional land will also be required in developed nations, displacing food and animal feed crops onto land in new areas, often in developing countries.”

The report says that EU biofuels companies have already acquired or requested over five million hectares - an area greater than the size of Denmark - in developing countries for cultivating biofuels crops.

For its part, the EU has acknowledged the negative impacts of so-called ‘indirect land-use change’ and, as such, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Fuel Quality Directive - revised in December 2009 - require the European Commission to produce a report the issue and to seek ways to minimise its impact.

In addition to the 2020 target, ActionAid points to generous European subsidies as a primary driver of increased biofuels use. The report estimates that the EU biofuel industry has already received €4.4 billion in incentives, subsidies and tax relief. It also forecasts that, in order to meet its 10 percent, these subsidies could triple more than €13.7 billion.

The report also takes aim at the impetus for establishing the 2020 target, arguing that because of the greenhouse gas and nitrous oxide emissions associated with land conversion for biofuels crops, many industrial biofuels do not, in fact, help to prevent climate change.

Some who defend the use of biofuels as a viable fuel option argue that land use problems in the developing world associated with biofuels are no different than those associated with other agricultural sectors. Others argue that while there are problems associated with biofuels, they should not be entirely abandoned as a source of fuel.

More information

The ActionAid report “Meals per gallon: The impact of industrial biofuels on people and global hunger” can be accessed here: http://www.actionaid.org/micrositeAssets/eu/assets/aa_biofuelsreportweb100210.pdf

ICTSD Reporting; “EU biofuels significantly harming food production in developing countries,” GUARDIAN, 15 February 2010; “EU biofuels target could starve millions of people,” EURACTIVE, 15 February 2010; “Controversy mounts over EU biofuels fall-out,” REUTERS, 15 February 2010.