BIOFUEL ROUNDUP: SUSTAINABILITY AT STAKE

As global production and consumption as well as target-setting for biofuels use increases, the debate has swiftly moved to hone in on a number of sustainability issues. During the last weeks, a meeting was held at the UN Food and Agriculture organisation (FAO) to consider the complex linkages between biofuel production, global food production and the environment. At another biofuels conference, a number of conservation organisations repeated warnings that increasing biodiesel production has become a major driver of deforestation in tropical forests. Meanwhile, WWF has released a new study regarding the full lifecycle carbon footprint of palm oil.

Amongst increasing calls for ways to ensure the sustainability of biofuels, a new international roundtable of biofuels stakeholders has been established to develop such criteria and guidelines -- even as other organisations and groups are pondering who should take the lead and how such criteria or standards should be developed.

Not all support sustainability standards for biofuels, however, According to media reports, Brazilian trade diplomats have warned their EU counterparts that they would reject any standards placed by buyers on bioethanol and biodiesel, and would bring such attempts to the WTO for dispute settlement due to their trade impacts.

Ag experts say food/fuel competition depends on specifics of country, region

Experts meeting at the FAO in mid-April agreed that the production of biofuels could present either an opportunity or a threat from a social and food security standpoint, depending on the circumstances. Joseph Schmidhuber, FAO Senior Economist, said that competition between food and fuel uses of crops depended on whether countries were importers or exporters of food crops to begin with. Alexander Müller, Head of FAO's Natural Resources Management and Environment, commented that "In food security terms, bioenergy only makes sense if we know where the food-insecure populations are located and what they need to improve their livelihoods." Participants stressed that those hurt by rising food prices due to increasing bioenergy demands, whether at the household level or among the net food-importing developing countries -- mainly located in Sub-Saharan Africa -- would need to be supported.

Participants discussed the role of small-scale biofuel production, providing farmers with fuel for on-farm use as well as to provide income through sales. Such biofuel production could become part of the overall landscape mosaic, integrated with other crop production in a sustainable way.

Overall, participants felt that the relationship between biofuels, food production and the environment was extremely complex and warranted further research and analysis. They also said performance standards were needed for biofuels production to ensure its sustainability. For instance, the FAO's International Bioenergy Platform could draw up bioenergy guidelines to be used both by governments and private sector investors.

Abolish biodiesel targets, say enviro groups

Meeting at the First European Summit on Sustainable Bio Fuels in Madrid from 17-18 April, 300 registered participants from both industry and civil society pondered future prospects for bioenergy.

A number of environmental groups expressed grave concerns, specifically with regard to palm oil production. "Biofuels made from unsustainably sourced palm oil are not green," said Michelle Desilets, director of the UK-based Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, adding that "clearing forests for production of palm oil often involves burning [which releases greenhouse gas emissions and destroys biodiversity]." Countries in the EU, which has set ambitious blending target for biodiesel, are set to import palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, or soy oil from Brazil based on production in areas where the Amazon has been cleared, said the groups.

Some reports have even found that clearing forests for palm oil production does not necessarily mean that plantations are planted. According to Willie Smits, who runs a satellite mapping service that charts the state of rainforests in Indonesia, companies are getting permissions to establish plantations in conservation forests. However, "what they're really doing is stealing the timber because they get to clear it before they plant. But the timber's all they want; hit and run with no intention of ever planting." According to UNEP, 98 percent of the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia will be gone within 15 years under current logging rates. The habitats of countless species will be destroyed, including orang-utans. These apes are further killed on plantations as they eat palm seedlings.

The environmental groups at the conference said the EU biodiesel target should be abandoned. A representative of the European Commission agreed that there are problems linked with biodiesel production in some cases, and said that the Commission was working on an incentive-based scheme to promote sustainably produced biofuels.

WWF: not all biodiesel is climate friendly

Meanwhile, a new WWF study looking at the climate impacts of palm oil production and use shows that only palm oil grown on fallow lands is sustainable. Clearing rainforest and draining peatland for palm oil production leads to more greenhouse gas emissions than any non-blended diesel it replaces would have emitted, according to the report, entitled "Rainforests for Biodiesel?"

"It is imperative that the use of fallow lands for oil palm cultivation be considered and prioritised before more rainforests are destroyed," said Markus Radday, WWF Germany's tropical forest officer. WWF reiterated a call for binding sustainability criteria for palm oil -- criteria that would ensure a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The group noted that palm oil certified as meeting criteria developed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil -- a multi-stakeholder platform comprising the main actors and interest groups in the area of palm oil production and consumption -- is expected to be on the market in July this year.

The study, Rainforests for Biodiesel?, is available at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_palmoil_study.pdf.

Biofuels roundtable to develop sustainability criteria

The Energy Centre at the Federal Polytechnical Institute (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, announced on 17 April that it would host a Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. The initiative is set to bring together the private sector, civil society and governments to develop principles for sustainable biofuels, much in the way the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Roundtable on Responsible Soy are doing.

Claude Martin, who chairs of the roundtable's steering board, said "Companies and farmers want global rules that they can follow. The Roundtable will bring together all of these actors to start writing these rules together, to ensure that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability."

Participants, which represent more than 80 organisations around the world, include WWF, Toyota, BP, the Mali Folkecenter, Shell, the Dutch and Swiss governments, the UN Foundation, Petrobras, Bunge and TERI India. They are set to "develop draft standards through a global feedback process" by early 2008. The standards will address environmental and social impacts, as well as overall greenhouse gas benefits.

Brazil views sustainability criteria as trade barriers

The call for sustainability criteria is not proving popular in all quarters, however. According to Brazilian press reports, the country has rejected environmental certification criteria. Such criteria would impose large costs on the country, which hinted that it would be ready to challenge their legitimacy at the WTO, would they be imposed by the EU and other biofuel importers.

ICTSD reporting; "Bioenergy could drive rural development," FAO RELEASE, 23 April 2007; "Tropical Forest Felled for Biofuels, Ecologists Say," REUTERS, 19 April 2007; "Palm oil: the biofuel of the future driving an ecological disaster now," GUARDIAN, 4 April 2007; "Rainforests for Biodiesel?" WWF RELEASE, 23 April 2007; "EPFL Announces Global Alliance to Ensure Biofuels' Sustainability," EPFL RELEASE, 17 April 2007; "Brazil To Reject EU Environment Rules For Ethanol -- Report," DOW JONES, 23 April 2007; "Brasil avisa a europeus que não aceita certificado ambiental," ESTADÃO - ONLINE, 19 Abril 2007.