Christian Aid: Biofuels are eco-scandal

Biofuels, once hailed as an environmental saviour, are driving deforestation and exacerbating global poverty, a report by social justice charity Christian Aid claimed this week.

Billions of dollars invested in biofuels as subsidies from the US and the EU have proved “disastrous”, the charity said in its new report, ‘Growing Pains’.

This support for biofuels has prompted drastic increases in global “hunger, severe human rights abuses and environmental destruction,” Christian Aid said.

Biofuels are an environmental bogeyman that “starve the poor to keep the cars of the rich running.”

In many cases, growing biofuel crops actually increases carbon emissions by up to 80% compared with burning fossil fuels, Christian Aid’s investigation found.

In the best case scenario, emissions are reduced by just 30% compared to burning fossil fuels.

These figures were calculated without emissions associated with changing the use of land for growing biofuels being taken into account.

“Vast sums of European and American taxpayers’ money are being used to prop up industries that are fuelling hunger, severe human rights abuses and environmental destruction – and failing to deliver the benefits claimed for them,” said Eliot Whittington, author of the report and Christian Aid’s advocacy specialist.

“The current approach to biofuels has been disastrous.

“Policymakers should urgently rethink their entire approach to biofuels, to ensure that only crops and fuels that will achieve their social and environmental goals receive government backing.

“Major reforms are also vital to prevent the damage already caused by biofuel plantations in Latin American and Asian countries from being repeated in Africa.”

Christian Aid said biofuels should only be grown on a small scale to power projects in local communities.

“The best approach to biofuels is to grow them on a small scale and process them locally to provide energy for people in the surrounding community,” said Whittington.

“This can also increase rural people’s incomes and has the potential to actually increase soil fertility and moisture retention without compromising people’s food security.”