Biofuels escape UN regulation

The biofuel industry escaped future regulation at the UN food summit last week following fierce debate between member states.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had called for international guidelines on biofuel production, whilst the UN envoy on the right to food pushed for an end to investment in biofuels.

The recent huge increases in the production of biofuels have been blamed for rising food prices and the consequent famine and unrest that plague many countries in the developing world.

This has been corroborated by research from a number of organisations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, the world’s major biofuel producers, Brazil and the US, argue that such a view is overly simplistic, and ignores factors such is the rising price of energy, the higher demand for meat and dairy in booming developing countries, and trade restrictions.

President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said that he finds the attempt to correlate higher food prices with biofuel production ‘frightening’ and ‘offensive’.

Brazil has historically used much of its sugar cane output to produce the biofuel ethanol.

This pressure from the US and Brazil resulted in the final declaration from the summit avoiding any negative language on biofuels.

The declaration concluded only that there needs to be an ongoing dialogue between states on biofuel production and food prices.

Consequently, countries at the summit who were opposed to biofuel production have been accused of giving in too easily to US pressure.

The US, who would have preferred an endorsement of biofuels, said that the declaration was ‘acceptable’.