Wednesday, 2nd April 2008
Race to cash in on lucrative subsidies for biofuels is potentially threatening the lives of millions
Dear Sir,
Your revelation that up to 10% of biofuels are shipped to America and back to Europe in order to claim US subsidies (Demands for crackdown on biofuels scam, 1 April) only goes further to damage the reputation of this dubious energy source.
Vast tracts of the Amazonian and Indonesian rain forests are being torn up to make way for biofuel crops like palm oil, releasing millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Millions of hectares are being taken out of food production to produce biofuels, laying the foundation for food shortages.
Greed instead of care has become the defining feature of our strategy for tackling climate change and the race to biofuels to cash in on lucrative subsidies is potentially threatening the lives of millions of people. Globally, an extra 6 million people are born every month. By 2030 the world population will have expanded by such an extent that we will require a 50% increase in food production to meet anticipated demand. By 2080, global food production will need to double. But the reality is that production is declining rather than expanding.
The spectre of empty supermarket shelves, even in the West, must now be considered a real possibility. Already we have seen food shortage riots in Africa, consumer protests against rising prices in Europe and significant falls in rice production in Asia. Food security is now top of the political agenda. We should think carefully about this before we destroy further vast swathes of the world's air conditioning system to grow bio-fuels.
Scientists say that we have only around 18 months left to find a solution to this problem. The doomsday clock is ticking fast towards midnight.
