Call for UN to limit use of bio-fuels

International environmental NGO's today called for governments not to promote bio-fuels as a solution to climate change. Bio-fuels (also known as agrofuels) look set to feature highly in the forthcoming UN climate change talks in Bali, Indonesia.

The surge in demand for bio-fuels has resulted in large areas of forest being cleared to make way for agrofuel plantations. This has resulted in the wide spread displacement of indigenous peoples often with violence and is fuelling increased social dislocation in affected countries.

Farah Sofa, deputy director of WALHI, Indonesia said:
"Ninety percent of palm oil - which is used in thousands of everyday products, from margarine and bread to lipstick and soap - comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. The palm oil industry has accelerated deforestation, driving Indigenous Peoples off their land. The demand for palm oil for agrofuel use could sound the death knell for our forests.

What we need is a reduction of palm oil consumption, an end to its export, and forest conservation that respects Indigenous Peoples' land rights."

South America has also been affected by the North's inability to curb its' dependence on carbon based fuels:
"Agrofuels are being promoted as a solution to climate change, but they are just a way to avoid policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions at their source. The establishment of plantations for agrofuels is displacing entire communities and Indigenous peoples - simply to fill the tanks of cars. The price of corn, sugar and cooking oil is rising because of agrofuel production - undermining the capacity of people to feed themselves and increasing hunger. So not only is a country like Colombia suffering the adverse impacts of climate change itself, but it also suffers the adverse impacts of this false solution to climate change."
said Hildebrando Velez from Censat Agua in Colombia.

And although bio-fuels are being promoted as a solution to climate change, the clearing of land has resulted in greater quantities of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere than could be saved by using bio-fuels.

Calling for the production, development and trade in agrofuels to be stopped, Friends of the Earth International Climate Coordinator Joseph Zacune said: "From all over the world we are getting reports of the irreversible social and environmental damage being caused by agrofuels. We cannot sit by and watch this global disaster unfold", he went on to say "Governments must heed warnings from major agencies including the UN and the OECD and immediately act on the demands from civil society worldwide by rejecting agrofuels."

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