Biofuels slammed by the UN

I suppose the food shortages have nothing to do with the drought experienced in most cereal crop growing nations??

I think that it would be a crime to cease the use of Biofuel.

Cheers Kev

Unfortunately, some organizations choose to put their head in the sand and aim their narrow focus at commerce and industry, instead of those Countries where uncontrolled breeding is the root cause of their problem.

That's as political as I will get.

The biggest problem the world faces is overpopulation.....overstock the farm and you will do ok for the first couple of seasons, then the land looses the nutrients and productivity, reducing its original carrying capacity. From what I have seen (or been shown in news etc) Africa is overpopulated.

The real humanitarian issue is how do you reduce a population of people.....China has the one child policy, possibly a step in the right direction...I believe we should cap the Australian Population somewhere around the current numbers to preserve our way of life and our environment.

The next 50 odd years will be 'interesting' in my view. If global warming raises sea levels and displaces billions of people and hey seek refuge in 'safe' countries, these remaining places will instantly become seriously overpopulated...possibly destroying the land there as well.

How do you stop the population from expanding ?

Andrew

One reads about Brazil and its success story with Ethanol, which provides about 30% of their motor fuel requirements.
But another report I read some years ago pointed out the economic requirement of a particular social class to produce the ethanol. Its low cost is premised upon a sub-class of workers on very low wages to tend the sugar cane crops.
Economics would dictate that where there is finite arable land, diversion of some of that land to produce fuels will be at the expense of food production and force up the price of food.
Gerry

On a global humanitian level is it very understandable where the UN is coming from.

Where do wealthy countries like the US (for example)get off using a lot of their good, edible corn to make petrol when that could quite easily be sent to poor countries to help stop children from dying of malnutrition.

I fully support the use of biofuels, and this highlights the need to develop sources that use non-arable land. Or waste from the farming process.

Some Ozzie scientists are testing high oil producing algae grown on saline affected land to make biodiesel. It's in projects like this where the biofuels industry has a long term future.

Barnesy

The UN has the situation where it's left hand doesn't know what it's right hand is doing:

Biofuels can cut poverty, provide energy and mitigate climate change – UN

Agriculture and forestry products such as sugarcane, maize and manure could become leading sources of energy, a key element in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability, according to a report released today.

With around 2 billion people, mostly in rural areas of developing countries, still living without electricity or other modern energy services, increased use of so-called bioenergy can help diversify agricultural and forestry activities, improve food security, contribute to sustainable development and mitigate climate change by replacing fossil fuels that produce global warming greenhouse gases.

“The production and use of biofuels need to be properly managed in order to provide energy services to the rural poor while improving food security and contributing to sustainable development,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expert Gustavo Best said in Rome, where the paper was presented to the agency’s Committee on Agriculture.

Bioenergy is produced from biofuels – solid fuels, biogas, liquid fuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel – which come from crops such as sugar cane and beet, maize and energy grass or from fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural wastes and by-products, forestry residues, livestock manure and others.

These products are a locally available energy source that can provide heat and power and contribute to the substitution of imported fossil fuels, thus enhancing national energy security, reducing the import bill of petroleum products and alleviating poverty.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 90 per cent of the rural population live without access to electricity, bioenergy – with its two main components, wood energy and agroenergy – can have a significant impact on improving livelihoods.

In developed countries, there is growing interest on the part of governments and the private sector in expanding the use of biofuels, particularly in the transport sector. Scenarios developed for the United States and European Union indicate that short-term targets of up to a 13 per cent replacement of petroleum-based fuels with liquid bioethanol and biodiesel appears feasible on available cropland, FAO says.

For this century, the report anticipates a significant switch from a fossil fuel to a bioenergy-based economy which could benefit not only the rural poor but also the whole planet, since biofuels can help mitigate climate change.