Critique of Unsustainable Biofuels

Open Letter to Issue Scathing Critique of Unsustainable Biofuels

Calls on U.S. to Stop Embracing This and Other False Solutions to Climate Change

On Thursday, January 15, 2008 an open letter will be distributed in the U.S. and internationally warning of the dangers of the rapid and destructive expansion of large-scale industrial production of biofuels (agrofuels). The letter explains why large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants such corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, or waste etc. (biomass) must be halted.

This is especially pertinent now, as many prominent voices in the U.S., including President-elect Obama, have voiced support for the large-scale production of agrofuels as a central strategy for solving the problems of energy supply and global warming.

This letter is initiated by some of the same groups that issued a call in 2007 for an immediate moratorium on further U.S. incentives for agrofuel development.

Topics covered in the letter:

Agrofuels are a “false solution” to climate change
Agrofuels worsen climate change and poverty
Next generation “cellulosic” fuels will exacerbate these problems
The scale of demand cannot be met sustainably
Agrofuels are not a renewable energy source
Agrofuels are a disaster for small farmers, indigenous peoples and others
And
Real solutions must be given a chance

ENDS

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