Unless you’ve been in a cave (or simply aren’t interested in how much fuel you have to buy and what’s in it), you will have heard of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO). This is a fairly simple rule that says 2.5% of all petrol and diesel sold on UK forecourts must come from renewable biofuel sources. This requirement will rise to 5% by 2010.
So, renewable and greener eh? What can be bad in that equation? Well, it seems that this scheme might well be contributing to human rights abuses and rising food prices. Shock horror – something that’s meant to be good turning out to be bad after all.
Oxfam has said that the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had estimated some 60 million indigenous people faced clearance from their land to make way for plantations such as palm and rapeseed oil (along with sugar cane and maize) – crops that can be farmed before processing into fuel.
Various locations are under the eye of Oxfam as they are currently throwing their own people off land in order to grow these crops. Asia, Africa and South America are all on the list. Obviously these are some big landmasses, and no doubt there are many other places that would be of interest to the charity.
Of course, another massive issue is food. What I mean by this is that if landmasses are being taken off the farmers, where will food crops be grown? Granted, you could say that it will still be available. No doubt this is true. Grain prices however will continue to rise, forcing the poorest out of the market – a market where being forced out could well mean starving to death.
Finally, there are others who say that there is a bigger failing in the scheme still – one that undermines the whole principle behind it. Their opinion is that biofuels are in fact not at all sustainable, due to continuing deforestation and damaging farming practices (including the use of fertilisers). This also leads to exacerbation of the problem of climate change itself – making the switch to biofuel completely pointless.
The government, in their usual style demand that nothing is wrong and we should go ahead. For once, in the whole green issue, I remain unconvinced. It really does sound as if Oxfam has a strong case here – and if it turns out that just one farm growing rapeseed means that someone has to starve then I’d say we’ve got it terribly, terribly wrong.
Friends of the Earth insist that the way forward is to create better public transport. That’s never a bad idea – I’d like to be travelling in a clean, quiet bus that isn’t shoving out horrendous amounts of Co2. But I think that’s ignoring the problem a little. Cars are not going to go away. They are an amazing invention. We all really need to think very carefully though about where we go from here.
Given all this information, I really feel that we’re on the cusp of something great. If bio-diesel isn’t the answer, maybe a manufacturer will really take the plunge and create something sustainable, efficient and able to manage more than 100 miles on a single charge. I personally think it’s going to be Honda. Their hydrogen fuel cell is something to amaze – and it shouldn’t starve anyone of force them off their land.
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