ActionAid: E.U. biofuel targets could lead to widespread hunger

The European Union’s renewable energy targets, if achieved, will lead to widespread hunger, according to a new report published by ActionAid.org. With many farmers ceding their land to biofuel companies, food costs are on the rise, and millions more people in the developing world are going without, the nonprofit claims — all the while industrialized countries are pushing hard for cheaper, sustainable fuels.

In 2008, the E.U. set a quota for itself — that 20 percent of its fuels would come from renewable sources by 2020. Biofuels do have several important advantages. They don’t run dry like oil fields, and they supposedly slash greenhouse gas emissions. They can also be produced domestically, reducing dependence on sometimes hostile states in the Middle East. There is also the longstanding hope that biofuels will eventually be cheaper than fossil fuels.

ActionAid acknowledges these benefits, but argues that biofuels are still responsible for at least 30 percent of the increase in food prices since 2008. The group says that if the E.U. achieves its renewable fuel goals, prices could go up another 76 percent by 2020. This would mean 600 million more people living on the brink of starvation around the world.

If an acre of land can be used to harvest fuel crops or food crops, farmers will always raise whichever one brings in the most money, ActionAid says. Right now, biofuels are in higher demand.

Hunger aside, the organization is also skeptical of how green biofuels actually are. Research conduction at Stanford predicts a 30 percent reduction in maize production throughout Africa by 2030 due to climate change. Intuitively, biofuels seem like a step in the right direction here. But ActionAid disagrees.

Citing the greenhouse gases generated by fertilizer production, crop transportation and bio-refineries, the organization says that biofuels will never be carbon neutral. Analysis of biofuels’ supply chains frequently shows that more greenhouse gases are emitted in making biofuels than burning fossil fuels. Essentially, in setting ambitious renewable fuel targets, the E.U. was getting ahead of science, ActionAid says.

The merits of biofuels have been in question for years. As the Obama administration tries to shape the next generation of energy production, it may want to take a closer look at renewable fuel subsidies, and whether they are truly worth it — at home and abroad.

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