Biofuels force food prices 'up by 75%'
Biofuels have been linked to higher global food prices
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Friday, 04, Jul 2008 12:50
The use of biofuels pushed global food prices up by 75 per cent, according to a leaked report from the World Bank.
The report, seen by the Guardian newspaper, is based on the most detailed analysis of the world's food crisis so far and was carried out by internationally-respected economists.
It follows warnings from Peru's president Alan Garcia in April that the demand for biofuels is harming food production and increasing food prices, affecting the world's poor.
And its leaked release comes ahead of the G8 meeting in Japan next week, where heads of the leading industrialised countries will discuss the global food crisis, and a vote in the European Parliament on Monday on proposed amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive, including an amendment to scrap the ten per cent biofuel target.
Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter said the leaked report shows that "when MEPs vote on biofuels targets next week they will have the fate of millions in their hands".
"Finding enough land to grow ten per cent of Europe's transport fuel will lead to more hunger and suffering – as well as doing next to nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions," he added.
"Politicians must act responsibly and change course on this disastrous transport policy.
"MEPs should scrap biofuels targets and instead vote to double the fuel efficiency of new cars by 2020 – a move that would do far more to reduce our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels."
Adrian Lovett, director of campaigns and communications at Save the Children, described the leaked report as "alarming".
"The rise in food prices is today pushing more and more children into poverty, extreme hunger and death," he added.
"At the same time, climate change is responsible for weather-related disasters which appear to be increasing in frequency, unpredictability and intensity – which hit the poor and vulnerable first and hardest."
Mr Lovett continued: "G8 leaders need to tackle climate change and food prices together – it is not an either-or. However, it is clear that a big question mark hangs over the whole biofuel enterprise.
"Biofuels are not the climate change cure-all some would have us believe. Thus, Save the Children welcomes the UK government's promise to review its targets for the use of biofuels.
"We also urge the government to work with the scientific community to ensure that the pursuit of energy security does not compete with the pursuit of hunger and poverty reduction as is currently occurring."