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Forests paying the price for
biofuels
22 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Fred Pearce
THE drive for "green energy"
in the developed world is having the perverse effect of
encouraging the destruction of tropical rainforests. From the
orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian Amazon, virgin
forest is being razed to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars
and power stations in Europe and North America. And surging prices
are likely to accelerate the destruction.
The rush to make energy from vegetable oils is being driven in
part by European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be
blended with biofuels, and by subsidies equivalent to 20 pence a
litre. Last week, the British government announced a target for
biofuels to make up 5 per cent of transport fuels by 2010. The aim
is to help meet Kyoto protocol targets for reducing greenhouse-gas
emissions.
Rising demand for green energy has led to a surge in the
international price of palm oil, with potentially damaging
consequences. "The expansion of palm oil production is one of
the leading causes of rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.
It is one of the most environmentally damaging commodities on the
planet," says Simon Counsell, director of the UK-based
Rainforest Foundation. "Once again it appears we are trying
to solve our environmental problems by dumping them in developing
countries, where they have devastating effects on local
people."
The main alternative to palm oil is soybean oil. But soya is the
largest single cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian
Amazon. Supporters of biofuels argue that they can be "carbon
neutral" because the CO2 released from burning
them is taken up again by the next crop. Interest is greatest for
diesel engines, which can run unmodified on vegetable oil, and in
Germany bio-diesel production has doubled since 2003. There are
also plans for burning palm oil in power stations.
“
Once again we are trying to solve our environmental problems by
dumping them on developing countries
”
Until recently,
Europe's small market in biofuels was dominated by home-grown
rapeseed (canola) oil. But surging demand from the food market has
raised the price of rapeseed oil too. This has led fuel
manufacturers to opt for palm and soya oil instead. Palm oil
prices jumped 10 per cent in September alone, and are predicted to
rise 20 per cent next year, while global demand for biofuels is
now rising at 25 per cent a year.
Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth UK, which backs biofuels,
says: "We need to ensure that the crops used to make the fuel
have been grown in a sustainable way or we will have rainforests
cleared for palm oil plantations to make bio-diesel."
From issue 2526 of New Scientist
magazine, 22 November 2005, page 19
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18825265.400.html
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Web Links
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