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UN Warns Of Biofuel Pitfalls
BANGKOK, THAILAND (AP) - The world’s rush to embrace biofuels is causing
a spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages
and force poor communities off their land, a U.N. official said.
Speaking at a regional forum on bioenergy, Regan Suzuki of the U.N.’s
Food and Agriculture Organization acknowledged that biofuels are better for
the environment
than fossil fuels and boost energy security for many countries.
However, she said those benefits must be weighed against the pitfalls - many
of which are just now emerging as countries convert millions of acres to palm
oil, sugar cane and other crops used to make biofuels.
“
Biofuels have become a flash point through which a wide range of social and environmental
issues are currently being played out in the media,” Suzuki told delegates
at the forum, sponsored by the U.N. and the Thai government.
Foremost among the concerns is increased competition for agricultural land,
which Suzuki warned has already caused a rise in corn prices in the United
States and
Mexico and could lead to food shortages in developing countries.
She also said China and India could face worsening water shortages because
biofuels require large amounts of water, while forests in Indonesia and Malaysia
could
face threats from the expansion of palm oil plantations.
“
Particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, land availability is a critical issue,” Suzuki
said. “There are clear comparative advantages for tropical and subtropical
countries in growing biofuel feed stocks but it is often these same countries
in which resource and land rights of vulnerable groups and protected forests
are weakest.”
Initially, biofuels were held up as a panacea for countries struggling to
cope with the rising cost of oil or those looking to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
The European Union, for example, plans to replace 10 percent of transport fuel
with biofuels made from energy crops such as sugar cane and rapeseed oil by
2020.
But in recent months, scientists, private agencies and even British government
have said biofuels could do more harm than good. Rather than protecting the
environment, they say energy crops destroy natural forests that actually store
carbon and
thus are a key tool in the fight to reduce global warming.
Some of those doubts were on display at the U.N. forum, with experts saying
many countries in Asia have rolled out plans to mandate biofuels for transport
without
weighing the potential risks.
Thailand, for example, is considering delaying the introduction of diesel
blended with 2 percent biofuel until April because of palm oil shortages, while
the
Philippines is considering shelving a biofuels law over concerns about the
negative environmental
effects.
India is facing criticism that its plans to plant 30 million acres of jatropha
trees by 2012 for biofuel could force communities from their land and worsen
deforestation. There are also concern that it will be unable to find the 100
million acres of vacant land it needs to grow the shrub-like plants.
Varhgese Paul, a forest and biodiversity expert with the Energy and Resources
Institute in India, said dependence on a single species is dangerous.
“
An outbreak of pests and diseases could wipe out entire plantations in one stroke,” Paul
said.
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