EU-kommissionen kritiserer ActionAids rapport om biobrændstof
EU-kommissionen har i Tanzania Daily kritiseret ActionAids rapport om biobrændstof - og ActionAid har i Tanzania Daily svaret på kritikken.
20. april 2010I marts 2010 lancerede MS rapporten ”Meals Per Gallon” skrevet af ActionAid International, som MS er en del af. Rapporten sætter fokus på, hvordan den øgede efterspørgsel efter industrielle biobrændstoffer risikerer at skubbe millioner af fattige ud i sult. I det tanzanianske dagblad Tanzania Daily News har Europakommissionen kommenteret rapporten, som retter en kraftig kritik af, at EU ukritisk opstiller politiske mål om vedvarende energi uden hensyntagen til den milliard mennesker, der sulter.
Vi bringer her ActionAids svar på EU-kommissionens kritik. Nedenfor kan både EU-kommisionens kritik og ActionAids svar læses på engelsk i den fulde udstrækning fra Tanzania Daily.
ActionAids svar
I EU-kommissionens kritik af ActionAids nye rapport ”Meals per Gallon” er nogle af udtalelserne fra Europakommissionen direkte vildledende eller upræcise. Selv om det er korrekt, når Kommisionen siger, at EU's 2020 transport mål på 10 pct.kan nås via vedvarende energi – og blive opfyldt ved brug af vedvarende elektricitet fra vind, solceller og andre kilder – er realiteten, at næste hele målet vil blive opfyldt at biobrændstof. Sverige og Frankrig har f.eks. allerede givet indikationer på, at det er deres strategi.
ActionAid anbefaler en omfattende reform af EU’s biobrændstofspolitik og deres mål om, at 10 pct. af transportsektorens energiforbrug skal komme fra vedvarende energi. Modsat Kommissionens påstand indikerer uafhængige kilder – såsom FNs fødevare og agrikultur organisation og IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) – at biobrændstoffer var ansvarlige for mindst 30 pct. af prisstigningerne på fødevarer i 2007/2008. Mennesker, der lever i fattigdom, bruger op mod 80 pct. af deres indkomst på fødevarer, og derfor vil enhver prisstigning på fødevarer som majs have en direkte og markant effekt på sult. Det er vildledende, at Kommissionen antyder andet, eftersom kommissionens egne rapporter antyder, at EU's mål i 2020 kan øge kornpriserne med 10 pct.
Europæiske virksomheder er i gang med at erhverve jord i udviklingslande i en alarmerende fart i forventningen om dramatiske stigninger i EU biobrændstofforbrug frem mod 2020 og de generøse subsidier, der er tilgængelige for biobrændstofindustrien. ActionAids egen undersøgelse indikerer, at virksomheder fra EU har erhvervet eller anmodet om mindste 5 millioner hektar land til industriel biobrændstofproduktion i udviklingslande, inklusive i Tanzania. EU kommissionens eget ”Joint Research Center” og andre rapporter indikerer, at omkring halvdelen af efterspørgslen på biobrændstof vil blive importeret i 2020, hvoraf en betydelig del vil komme fra udviklingslande.
EU kommissionen er ligeledes i defensiven, da flere og flere studier viser, at mange af de eksisterende biobrændstoffer kun vil have få – om nogen – drivhusgasbesparende effekter, når de sammenlignes med de fossile brændstoffer, som de erstatter. Ikke nok med at EU's biobrændstofpolitik øger sult, den er heller ikke nogen løsning på klimaforandringer.
EU-kommissionens kritik bragt i Tanzanias Daily News den 14. april
EU faults ActionAid biofuels report
By FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE, 14th April 2010
THE European Union has dismissed as unfounded a report by ActionAid that accuses the 27-member bloc's energy policy of fuelling hunger and land grabbing in poor countries such as Tanzania.
The EU has instead defended its policy, saying it targets to meet 10 per cent of the bloc's energy demand from renewable sources -- wind and solar -- but not exclusively from biofuels as suggested by the ActionAid report.
The European Commission said in a statement today while responding to 'Daily News' that, "There is a binding target of 10 per cent for renewable energy, not bio-fuels. This means member states can achieve the target by using different forms of renewable energy -- wind, solar and others."
The EU adopted a Renewable Energy Directive that among other things sets a binding target for the share of renewable energy in transport by 2020.
The EC dismissed the report that accused the Brussels based bloc of fuelling hunger in developing countries including Tanzania where European multinational corporations are investing heavily in rural areas to produce biofuels.
The statement said currently the EU is meeting most of its own renewable energy needs including biofuels while importing some from the United States.
According to 'Euro Observer', in 2008, a large share of biofuels consumed in the bloc came from its domestic sources. 'Euro Observer' said EU sources provided 68 per cent of ethanol and 84 per cent of biodiesel consumed in the bloc.
It dismisses arguments that biofuels have contributed towards global food price hikes and scramble for huge tracts of land by multinational corporations in poor countries, as unfounded saying Europe has plenty of abandoned land in its eastern and central parts.
"Most serious studies show that bio-fuels played a very small part, only a few percentage points, in the big food price increases of 2008. This is not surprising as biofuels still account for only a small part of world demand for agricultural commodities," the EC argued.
"Rice was the crop whose price rose fastest, yet rice is not used at all as a biofuel. Sugar prices fell, yet sugar accounts for nearly half of the world's biofuel production. This reinforces the view that it is not biofuel demand that drives crop prices," the statement added.
The EC however acknowledged that the bloc will need to import some of its biofuels from the developing world including Africa but spelled out some conditions which exporting companies have to meet.
"Biofuels imported to the EU (and also those produced in EU) and counting for the 10 per cent objective have to meet certain sustainability criteria: primary forests, grassland or national parks cannot be converted into land used for biofuels. If land is converted into land used for production of biofuels, the green gas savings must be minimum 35 per cent compared to petrol," the statement pointed out.
In its recent report titled, 'Meal per gallon,' the British charity, ActionAid estimated that the EU plan to source 10 per cent of transport fuels from biofuels would increase competition for agricultural lands, spur a sharp rise in food prices.
"Biofuels are conservatively estimated to have been responsible for at least 30 per cent of the global food price hike in 2008," stated the report. The charity argued that it is estimated that in 2008, the food crisis pushed an extra 100 million people into poverty and driven about 30 million more people into hunger."
ActionAid said if all global biofuel targets are met, it is forecasted that food prices will increase by up to an additional 76 per cent by 2020 pushing an estimated 600 million extra people into hunger.
Beyond food scarcity concerns, ActionAid said biofuel targets will increase conflict over land and exacerbate environmental problems.
"The scale of the current land grab is astonishing. In just five African countries, 1.1 million hectares have been given over to industrial biofuels, an area the size of Belgium, EU companies have already acquired or requested at least five million hectares of land for industrial biofuels in developing countries -- an area greater than the size of Denmark," the ActionAid report noted.
The report argues that cropland expansion (17.5 million hectares will be needed in developing countries to meet the EU's 10 per cent target) will come at the expense of tropical forests and peatlands, worsening climate change.
Full link: http://dailynews.co.tz/business/?n=9069
ActionAids svar til EU-kommissionen bragt i Tanzania Daily den 19. april 2010
ActionAid disputes EC arguments on biofuels
By FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE, 19th April 2010
EUROPEAN Union’s energy policy which targets to source 10 percent of it from renewable sources by 2020, is both a threat to food security and not an appropriate response to climate change.
ActionAid International Tanzania Country Director, Aida Kiangi and Agriculture and Food Security Advisor, Elias Mtinda said in Dar es Salaam today that European Commission’s energy policy has lured Western corporations into rural areas of the developing world including Tanzania.
Describing a recent EC Head of Delegation in Dar es Salaam which faulted an ActionAid report which criticized Brussels energy policy as fuelling hunger and land grabbing in poor countries by biofuel corporations, Ms Kiangi said facts and figures stand out clearly.
“EU companies are acquiring land in developing countries at an alarming rate in anticipation of dramatically increased EU biofuel consumption by 2020 and the generous subsidies available to the biofuel industry,” Kiangi argued.
Mr Mtinda said during research into the country’s biofuel sector which led to publication of a report titled, ‘Meals per Gallon,’ ActionAid observed that European companies on the ground were acquiring prime arable land suitable for food production.
“This is contrary to the national biofuels guidelines which clearly state that cultivation of biofuel crops should be done on marginal land,” Mr Mtinda argued.
The two ActionAid officials also dismissed the EC delegation’s argument that Europe has plenty of abandoned land such that its biofuel companies have enough backyard to produce the oil as unrealistic because European companies are escaping hiked production costs at home.
They also dismissed arguments that one of the staple food crops which experienced price hike in 2008 is rice which is not used as a biofuel raw material use of maize as a raw material had a direct effect on other food crops including rice.
“Contrary to the Commission’s claims, independent sources such as the World Bank and International Food Policy Research Institute suggest that biofuels were responsible for at least 30 percent of the 2007/8 food price spike,” Kiangi noted.
Last week, the EC Delegation in Dar es Salaam issued a statement dismissing ActionAid’s report as substantially flawed. Last year, the EU adopted a Renewable Energy Directive which among other things sets a binding target for the share of renewable energy in transport by 2020.
“The directive sets a binding target of 10 percent for renewable energy, not bio-fuels. This means that member states can achieve this target by using different forms of renewable energy, including wind and solar energy and others,” the EC said in its statement.
Full link: http://dailynews.co.tz/business/?n=9216
