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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy">http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy</a><br>
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<h1>Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis</h1>
<p id="stand-first">Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant
energy drive<br>
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<p id="stand-first">Aditya Chakrabortty<br>
The Guardian (UK)<br>
Friday July 4, 2008</p>
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<p>Biofuels
have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously
estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by
the Guardian. </p>
<p>The damning unpublished assessment is based on
the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an
internationally-respected economist at global financial body. </p>
<p>The
figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that
plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It
will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe,
which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil. </p>
<p>Senior
development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not
been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. </p>
<p>"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White
House," said one yesterday.</p>
<p>The
news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels
policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in
Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under
intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use
of plant-derived fuels. </p>
<p>It will also put pressure on the
British government, which is due to release its own report on the
impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously
reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/19/climatechange.biofuels">played
a "significant" part in pushing up food prices</a> to record levels.
Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been
released.</p>
<p>"Political
leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence
that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said
Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have
the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry
lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat." </p>
<p>Rising
food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line,
estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to
Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel
prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation". </p>
<p>President
Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and
China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income
growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global
grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large
price increases." </p>
<p>Even successive droughts in Australia,
calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues
that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact
on food supply and prices. </p>
<p>Since April, all petrol and diesel
in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been
considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with
mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.</p>
<p>"Without
the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have
declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would
have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices
examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The
report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for
an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75%
jump over that period.</p>
<p>It argues that production of biofuels has
distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain
away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to
produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going
towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been
encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has
sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher. </p>
<p>Other
reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or
have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller
estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don
Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed,
month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much
closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply. </p>
<p>The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil
specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.</p>
<p>Supporters
of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil
and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some
experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol
from plants. </p>
<p>"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts
on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief
scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these
is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle
climate change."</p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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