agrofuels

Land being used for biofuels in Mozambique. Credit: Daniel Ribeiro

The report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) estimates that 85 percent of biodiversity will be damaged across 17,000 square kilometres of natural habitats that risks being converted to farmland as a result of EU biofuel targets. None of this will be protected under current EU legislation for biofuels.

After continual controversy and delay, EU chiefs are on the verge of deciding how to deal with the greenhouse gas emissions associated with ‘indirect land use change’ from expanding biofuels. EU officials will tomorrow (Friday November 18) present their assessment of scientific studies, which have consistently shown that the negative impacts on global land use and the climate could reverse any benefits of biofuels. [2] Friends of the Earth Europe is calling for an urgent rethink of EU biofuel policy and an end to subsidies.

The EU has committed to halting biodiversity loss by 2020 – yet without reform, it’s biofuels policy will seriously undermine this commitment.

“Biofuels, once thought of as a solution, are pushing up food prices around the world, they’re making climate change worse, and it is now clear they could wipe out wildlife.

“Continuing to expand biofuels for Europe’s cars is going to have a devastating impact on the biodiversity which is the very basis of our existence and is already disappearing at an alarming rate.

“The pressure is on the European Commission to decide once and for all how to stop the damage caused by biofuels. It must face up to the facts that biofuels are a disaster for the climate, communities and wildlife.”

The JRC research indicates that habitats in Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS – the former USSR countries) will be hardest hit: “The extensive use of bioenergy crops will increase the rate in loss of biodiversity,” the JRC concludes.

One such area, Brazil’s Cerrado – the most biodiverse savanna in the world – is already under pressure from expanding agriculture, with 54 species “red-listed” as endangered, including the Brazilian Big-eyed Bat, Giant Anteater, Pampas Cat and Maned Wolf.

further information

Read the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre report
Find out more about Friends of the Earth Europe's agrofuels campaign

The advert was displayed on the Guardian Environment Blog website at least on the March 28, 2011, probably longer. We believe it constitutes a breach of the British code of advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing.

Already on January 9, 2008 and on August 27, 2009 the ASA found that a TV advert and a print advert respectively by MPOC with equivalent claims about the sustainability of palm oil breached rules and should not reappear.

MPOC have chosen to disrespect the ASA’s ruling and have continued to produce misleading adverts about the sustainability of palm oil.

Friends of the Earth is worried that future adverts of MPOC will continue to ignore the Code and asks the ASA to utilise the full range of penalties at its disposal in response.

In particular Friends of the Earth suggests that:

• MPOC publish an advert of the same size that explains that their previous advert was misleading.
• The ASA advises UK media not to publish any adverts of MPOC for a substantial period, as they consistently mislead.

Relevant articles of the Code

SUBSTANTIATION

3.1 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of objective substantiation.

3.2 If there is a significant division of informed opinion about any claims made in a marketing communication they should not be portrayed as generally agreed.

TRUTHFULNESS

7.1 No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.

ENVIRONMENTAL CLAIMS

49.2 Claims such as ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘wholly biodegradable’ should not be used without qualification unless marketers can provide convincing evidence that their product will cause no environmental damage when taking into account the full life cycle of the product. Qualified claims and comparisons such as ‘greener’ or ‘friendlier’ may be acceptable if marketers can substantiate that their product provides an overall improvement in environmental terms either against their competitors’ or their own previous products.

49.3 Where there is a significant division of scientific opinion or where evidence is inconclusive this should be reflected in any statements made in the marketing communication. Marketers should not suggest that their claims command universal acceptance if that is not the case.

Areas of complaint

1. The banner advert says ”Sustainable. Food Security. Societal Advancement. This is Palm Oil.”

This is contravention of principle 49.2 as the use of the term “Sustainable” in this context implies that palm oil is a particularly environmentally friendly product, while the marketer cannot provide convincing evidence that palm oil will cause no environmental damage when taking into account the full life cycle of the product. 

The use of the term "sustainable" in this context is also in breach of
-    principle 3.1 as the claim that palm oil is always sustainable cannot be substantiated.
-    principle 3.2 as MPOC portrays their claims in a way that suggests they generally accepted, despite that there is significant division of informed opinion about the environmental and social impacts of palm oil.
-    principle 7.1 as MPOC misleads the reader by making inaccurate claims in contradiction to generally accepted evidence for major negative environmental impacts of palm oil plantations.
-    principle 49.2 the claim  that palm oil is “sustainable” is similar to “environmental friendly” and the marketer cannot provide convincing evidence that palm oil will cause no environmental damage when taking account the full life cycle.  
-    principle 49.3 as the ad suggest that the claim that palm oil is sustainable command universal acceptance while this is not the case.

The revelations come as the European Commission re-considers its attempt to redefine palm oil plantations as "forests" in their draft guidance to EU countries aiming to prevent unsustainable biofuels, and discussions surrounding the use of industry-led certification schemes to meet EU standards continue.

Adrian Bebb, food and agriculture campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Illegal deforestation, land-grabbing and the breach of environmental laws are the reality behind Europe’s palm oil use. Europe’s biofuel target and palm-oil obsession are driving this destruction, and companies like the IOI Group, that promote themselves as green and responsible, are putting profit before both people and the planet, sacrificing forests for Europe’s food and fuel."

According to the United Nations the rapid increase in palm oil plantation acreage is now the primary cause of permanent rainforest loss in Indonesia.

The Friends of the Earth investigation exposes the actions of the Malaysian-based IOI Group, the largest palm oil company in the world and one of the driving forces behind 'green' certification schemes for palm oil. The research reveals that IOI is responsible for illegal deforestation, the encroachment upon protected peat lands, and land-grabbing at the expense of local rice farmers in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan.

IOI Group is a leading member of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), one of the most active lobby groups pushing for palm oil to be used as a biofuel in the EU, and co-founder of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The majority of palm oil comes to Europe via the Netherlands where IOI operate a number of facilities. The food-multinational Unilever and the Finnish biofuel producer Neste Oil are among the buyers of IOI's palm oil.

"By attempting to redefine industrial palm oil plantations as forests, forests will become fair game for conversion into damaging biofuel plantations. The resulting green house gas emissions from deforestation mean that EU biofuel targets end up fuelling climate change rather than curbing it. All efforts should be made to prevent the use of palm oil in biofuels" Adrian Bebb concluded.

further information

• Read the report here
• Find out more about our work resisting agrofuels

At the recent Jatropha World Summit in Ghana government ministers and big business promoted the large scale export and production of the crop in the capital's La Palm Beach Hotel. Meanwhile in rather less salubrious surroundings a one day side event shone a critical light on the so called miracle crop.

The side event held by Friends of the Earth Ghana was called 'Jatropha: Exposing the New Threats to Africa's Agriculture' and focused on debunking the myth of Jatropha as a miracle crop as well as condemning the idea that Africa has large chunks of wasteland waiting for someone to put them to use.

Jatropha is being pushed as one of the new miracle crops for African small farmers to produce fuel and dig themselves out of poverty. The reality is that agrofuel developments are firmly controlled by Northern companies which are taking over land at an incredible pace, and are bringing about serious socio-economic and environmental impacts on our communities, food security, forests and water resources.

The side event was attended by representatives of Friends of the Earth groups from Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, as well as consumer groups, Ghanaian NGOs and the media.  Participants discussed their frustration at the acquisition of African land by foreign companies and raised the question of who decides what is marginal land and what is not. 

Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, told the participants that he hoped the summit would cause business tycoons and government officials meeting in Accra to stop and think about their actions. 

"Africa is being so severely challenged and is routinely characterised as the sick continent of the world," he says, "it is a challenge to the peoples of Africa to rise up and resist any move that will severely impact our ability to meet our food needs, further add problems to the land tenure difficulties and further project the continent as a land that is good only for exploitation." 

"The time has come for Africa to focus on renewable energy and strive for energy sovereignty," Nnimmo says.

• Find out more about Jatropha

• Read Friends of the Earth's report on Jatropha in Swaziland
  

Click here to watch two other short videos with inspiring energy initiatives

Agrofuels (often called biofuels) are liquid fuels, notably biodiesel and bioethanol. So-called first generation agrofuels are derived from food crops such as cereals, soybean, rapeseed oil, sugar cane and palm oil. Second generation, which are currently under development, are aimed at using agricultural residues, trees (willow, eucalyptus) and straw, and may involve industrial technologies such as genetically modified microorganisms, crops and trees. Both generations set out to provide fuel on an industrial and large scale for electricity production and transportation.

Friends of the Earth International is deeply concerned that the rapid development and production of agrofuels will increase already serious social and environmental problems including the risk of worsening climate change. In particular there is a real danger that agrofuels will:

1. increase poverty and hunger - particularly in the South - as food prices increase and land is used to grow fuel rather than food which destroys family farmers¹ livelihoods, turns prime agricultural land over to servicing the energy commodity market and reduces food production.
2. violate human rights, including indigenous peoples¹ land rights, as local communities are expelled, often violently, from their forest and agricultural lands to make way for corporate-run monoculture plantations.
3. damage biodiversity and eco-systems as agriculture is intensified to meet the new demand, for example through the increase in monocultures and genetically modified crops. Furthermore, agriculture is forced to expand into sensitive and biodiversity rich areas such as forests, savannas, fallow and marginal land.
4. increase pressure on valuable natural resources such as water and productive agricultural land.
5. contribute to climate change as carbon sinks are destroyed through forests being felled or peatlands drained and through excessive use of fertilizer and energy consumption for production and distribution.
   
6. exacerbate an already unsustainable trade in agricultural products that depends largely on the exploitation of countries of the global South to meet the needs of the richer North.
   
7. distract governments from taking real measures to tackle the climate and energy crisis.

Friends of the Earth International believes that the certification of agrofuels will provide no guarantee of sustainability nor address all of the above concerns. We are extremely concerned by the politically driven demand for agrofuels, especially in light of the mounting evidence of social and environmental problems, and the belief that certification will solve these.

On this basis Friends of the Earth International is calling for a halt to the development, production and trade of agrofuels and that all targets and other incentives, including subsidies, carbon trading and public and private finance related to the development and production of agrofuels should be abolished.

Real solutions

Greenhouse gas emissions need to be dramatically reduced in order to prevent the most dangerous consequences of climate change. FOEI is calling for stringent targets and timetables, the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies and the promotion of effective solutions.

Friends of the Earth International promotes:

1. peoples' energy sovereignty (i.e. the ability of peoples and communities to decide over their energy sources and energy consumption patterns that will lead them to sustainable societies);
2. sustainable transportation; and
3. genuine solutions to climate change such as safe clean renewable energy, energy savings and efficiency.

All renewable energy developments should be within strict environmental and social parameters, should not endanger food sovereignty and should lead to the empowerment of communities.

Friends of the Earth International challenges the over-consumption and inefficient use of natural resources, particularly in the North, and campaigns for environmental sustainable and socially just societies.

28 November, 2007