G8 seeks sustainable use of biofuels

Tag : Organic Oil


Toyako, Japan - The Group of Eight powers agreed to explore ways toreduce the impact of biofuels on food prices amid concern they maybe hurting the poor and adding to global warming.


Biofuels, derived from organic materials such as palm oil and sugarbeet, were once seen as a promising way to reduce greenhouse gasemissions blamed for global warming by cutting the use of fossilfuels.

But some experts have warned that current biofuels policy couldpush up grain prices and cause greenhouse gas emissions rather thansavings.

Biofuels were a hot topic among leaders of Britain, Canada, France,Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States huddled in thisspa resort in northern Japan, a senior Japanese foreign ministryofficial said.

"Some leaders said it’s necessary to study the (effect ofthe) use of biofuels and ethanol in particular," he told reporters.

The G8 leaders pledged in a statement to "ensure the compatibilityof policies for the sustainable production and use of biofuels withfood security."

They vowed to "accelerate development and commercialisation ofsustainable second-generation biofuels from non-food plantmaterials and inedible biomass."

The British government said Monday it would slow the expansion ofbiofuels following a report that found they might increasegreenhouse gas emissions and contribute to food price rises.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on the sidelines of theG8 summit that there was "no doubt" that the use of biofuels hashad an effect on food prices.

"For the corn production globally, the use of corn ethanol in theUnited States has, I think, taken two-thirds or three-quarters ofadded marginal production," Zoellick said.

He said there was a good argument to be made for the development ofsecond-generation biofuels produced from the inedible parts ofplants.

South Africa, which was invited to expanded sessions of the G8summit, last week introduced a policy of excluding maize from theproduction of biofuels.

"We think there needs to be an international framework onbiofuels," Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, South Africa’senvironmental minister, told reporters.

The aid agency Oxfam said one tank of corn-based ethanol for asports utility vehicle could feed a poor person for a year.

"The G8 leaders do not seem to get it," Jeremy Hobbs, executivedirector of Oxfam International, said in a statement.

"The facts are clear: G8 biofuels policies are 75 percent of theproblem, yet the leaders barely mention them and blithely continueto burn food in their cars," he said, referring to a leaked WorldBank report saying biofuels have caused world food prices toincrease by three quarters.