Impacts of First Generation Agrofuels

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BiodiversityClimat

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AgrofuelImpacts

Wilkins Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Drivers of agrofuel expansion

Two Converging Imperatives● Kyoto protocol / Climate ‘techno-fixes’● Oil depletion ('Peak Oil')

One Dysfunctional Paradigm● Economic Growth / Profit

US / EU Policy – going off the graph

EU – 10% by 2020 (1% now)

2010 2020

US – 20% by 2020 (4% now)

AGROFUELS

People in Mexico take to the streets as ethanol makes their staple food unaffordable Photo by Gregory Bull, AP

International Food Policy Research Institute

. . . projects that the number of people

suffering from undernourishment would increase by 16 million people for each percentage point increase in the real price of staple food

Agrofuel 'suitability' map of the global South

Jatropha suitability maps for Africa and DR Congo, from IUCN website

The human cost of biofuel monocultures: pesticide poisoning in Paraguay

Landless People’s Camp in Front of Large Industrial Agriculture Estate, Upper Parana

Soya expansion in Paraguay has driven 90,000 families off their land -

The camp is set on fire

Agrofuel expansion and human rights: The Indonesian example

In West Kalimantan (Indonesia) alone, 5 million indigenous people are likely to be displaced by agrofuel expansion

(Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)

Protests against destruction of forests and community lands for palm oil, pulp and timber in Sumatra

Photo by Feri Irawan, WALHI Jambi

South-east Asia’s peatlands hold up to 50 billion tonnes of carbon

Logging and palm oil expansion go hand in hand

Draining Borneo’s peat for plantations

Borneo ablaze: Annual peat fires pump billions of

tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere

Climate change mitigation?

● South-east Asia's peatlands contain up to 50 billion tonnes of carbon. This carbon will be released as the peat is drained. 45% has been drained – the rest is likely to be destroyed largely to meet global demand for biodiesel.

Peat drainage for oil palms, Sarawak,Photo www.air-co.org

Through most of 2007 the price of soya has been rising again, thanks to biofuels.

And the Amazon is being cut down faster than before.

Amazon rainforest destroyed for soya

NASA: Rate of Amazon destruction correlates with market price of Soya

Massive land-use change in global South

Legislating for a Biofuels Boom

● EU Renewable Energy Directive, 10% agrofuels in transportation by 2020

● 5% mandatory interim target by 2015

● Review in 2014, but key ecosystems will have already have disappeared by 2012

New Corporate Partnerships

Agribusiness , e.g. ADM, Cargill and Bunge AND

Biotech companies, e.g. Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont AND

Oil companies, e.g. BP, TOTAL, Shell AND

Car manufacturers based in Europe and the US, e.g.Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, SAAB

Monbiot: 5-year freeze on Agrofuel targets

FoE Paraguay and Argentinian NGO’s

calling for moratorium

Nearly 200 NGO’s calling for a moratorium

UN FAO now calling for a 5-year Moratorium

Certification cannot deal with macro-climate impacts or displacement

Moratorium Calls

4 x

100x

400x

1x

Tuesday April 15th – Downing Street,

6.00pm