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Impacts of First Generation Agrofuels. Climate. Biodiversity. Agrofuel Impacts. Communities. Food. Wilkins Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Drivers of agrofuel expansion. Two Converging Imperatives Kyoto protocol / Climate ‘techno-fixes’ Oil depletion ('Peak Oil') One Dysfunctional Paradigm
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Impacts of First Generation Agrofuels Climate Biodiversity Agrofuel Impacts Communities Food
Drivers of agrofuel expansion Two Converging Imperatives • Kyoto protocol /Climate ‘techno-fixes’ • Oildepletion ('Peak Oil') One Dysfunctional Paradigm • Economic Growth / Profit
US / EU Policy – going off the graph EU – 10% by 2020 (1% now) US – 20% by 2020 (4% now) 2010 2020
AGROFUELS People in Mexico take to the streets as ethanol makes their staple food unaffordable Photo by Gregory Bull, AP
International Food Policy Research Institute . .. projects that the number of people suffering from undernourishment would increase by 16 million people for each percentage point increase in the real price of staple food
Agrofuel 'suitability' map of the global South Jatrophasuitability maps for Africa and DR Congo, from IUCN website
The human cost of biofuel monocultures: pesticide poisoning in Paraguay
Landless People’s Camp in Front of Large Industrial Agriculture Estate, Upper Parana Soya expansion in Paraguay has driven 90,000 families off their land -
Agrofuel expansion and human rights: The Indonesian example In West Kalimantan (Indonesia) alone, 5 million indigenous people are likely to be displaced by agrofuel expansion (Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) Protests against destruction of forests and community lands for palm oil, pulp and timber in Sumatra Photo by Feri Irawan, WALHI Jambi
South-east Asia’s peatlands hold up to 50 billion tonnes of carbon
Borneo ablaze: Annual peat fires pump billions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere
Climate change mitigation? • South-east Asia's peatlands contain up to 50 billion tonnes of carbon. This carbon will be released as the peat is drained. 45% has been drained – the rest is likely to be destroyed largely to meet global demand for biodiesel. Peat drainage for oil palms, Sarawak, Photo www.air-co.org
NASA: Rate of Amazon destruction correlates with market price of Soya Through most of 2007 the price of soya has been rising again, thanks to biofuels. And the Amazon is being cut down faster than before. Amazon rainforest destroyed for soya
Legislating for a Biofuels Boom • EU Renewable Energy Directive, 10% agrofuels in transportation by 2020 • 5% mandatory interim target by 2015 • Review in 2014, but key ecosystems will have already have disappeared by 2012
New Corporate Partnerships Agribusiness , e.g. ADM, Cargill and Bunge AND Biotech companies, e.g. Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont AND Oil companies, e.g. BP, TOTAL, Shell AND Car manufacturers based in Europe and the US, e.g.Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, SAAB
Monbiot: 5-year freeze on Agrofuel targets Moratorium Calls • FoE Paraguay and Argentinian NGO’s calling for moratorium • Nearly 200 NGO’s calling for a moratorium • UN FAO now calling for a 5-year Moratorium • Certification cannot deal with macro-climate impacts or displacement
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