UN urges sustainable global biofuels development

09 May 2007 12:04  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The global surge in biofuels production could threaten food supplies and increase poverty unless new policies lead the growth in a sustainable direction, said the United Nations in its most extensive report to date on energy fuels.

Compiled by all 30 of the organisations agencies, the UN-Energy report said the development of new biofuel industries could provide clean energy services to millions of people who currently lack them, while generating income and creating jobs in poorer areas of the world.

Global production of biofuels has doubled in the past five years and was likely to double again in the next four years, UN-Energy said.

 

A surge in oil prices has lead some of the world’s poorest countries to spend six times as much on petroleum as they do on healthcare, and thus bioenergy can create a lot of opportunities, said assistant director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Alexander Muller.

 

The global rush to convert to biofuels has caused a dramatic change in the earth’s land use. Millions of acres have been converted to growing biofuel crops - notably sugar cane in Brazil, corn in the US and palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

However, Muller warned that that “unless new policies are enacted to protect threatened lands, secure socially acceptable land use and steer bioenergy development in a sustainable direction overall, the environmental and social damage could in some cases outweigh the benefits.”

 

The energy market drives the prices of agricultural products, added the FAO. Price increases in major biofuel sources such as sugar, palm oil and soybeans could drive up the prices of basic foods, threatening food security.

 

A major concern in the report was the need for a framework to avoid additional threat to food security as a result of biofuel production.

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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