Biofuels Offer Cure Worse Than the Disease - OECD
Date: 12-Sep-07
Country: FRANCE
Author: Sybille de La Hamaide
In a report on the impact of biofuels, the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said biofuels may
"offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal".
"The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating
unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without
generating significant environmental benefits," the OECD said.
"When acidification, fertiliser use, biodiversity loss and
toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the
overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very
easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel," it added.
The OECD therefore called on governments to cut their
subsidies for the sector and instead encourage research into
technologies that would avoid competing for land use with food
production.
"Governments should cease to create new mandates for
biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out," it said.
The OECD said tax incentives put in place in many regions,
including the European Union and the United States, to encourage
biofuel output could hide other objectives.
"Biofuel policies may appear to be an easy way to support
domestic agriculture against the backdrop of international
negotiations to liberalise agricultural trade," it said.
CUT DEMAND
Instead it encouraged members of the World Trade
Organisation to step efforts to lower barriers to biofuel
imports to allow developing countries that have ecological and
climate systems more suited to biomass production.
The OECD also encouraged government to work on cutting
demand for transport fuel rather than encouraging production of
so-called "green" fuels.
"A litre of gasoline or diesel conserved because a person
walks, rides a bicycles, carpools or tunes up his or her
vehicle's engine more often is a full litre of gasoline or
diesel saved at a much lower cost to the economy than
subsidising inefficient new sources of supply," it said.
Biofuels, made mainly from grains, oilseeds and sugar, have
been accused of being responsible for a recent surge in farm
commodities prices, along with other factors such as lower
output and tight stocks.
The OECD, which said in July that it saw biofuels keeping
prices at high levels into the next decade, said it would lead
to an unavoidable "food-versus-fuel" debate.
"Any diversion of land from food or feed production to
production of energy biomass will influence food prices from the
start, as both compete for the same input," it said.