Assumptions in the European Union biofuels policy: frictions with experiences in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique

Abstract

The biofuel project is an agro-industrial development and politically contested policy process where governments increasingly become global actors. European Union (EU) biofuels policy rests upon arguments about societal benefits of three main kinds – namely, environmental protection (especially greenhouse gas savings), energy security and rural development, especially in the global South. Each argument involves optimistic assumptions about what the putative benefits mean and how they can be fulfilled. After examining those assumptions, we compare them with experiences in three countries – Germany, Brazil and Mozambique – which have various links to each other and to the EU through biofuels. In those case studies, there are fundamental contradictions between EU policy assumptions and practices in the real world, involving frictional encounters among biofuel promoters as well as with people adversely affected. Such contradictions may intensify with the future rise of biofuels and so warrant systematic attention.

Keywords:

• biofuels
• agrofuels
• rural development
• greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
• energy security
• bioethanol
• biodiesel

Notes

¹The research leading to these results has been carried out by the Transnational Institute (TNI) with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n° 217647. Carried out during 2008–10, the project called Co-operative Research on Environmental Problems in Europe (CREPE) had a part on agrofuels which aimed: (i) to facilitate interdisciplinary research by and with civil society organisations (CSOs) on agrofuels/agrofuel policies and their impacts; (ii) to identify, explain and interrogate the key assumptions underlying government policies promoting agrofuels; and (iii) to link these assumptions with accounts of sustainable development. We used a cooperative research approach to involve academic researchers and activist researchers based in civil society organisations, in the conceptualisation and design, data gathering and analysis, as well as in the validation and dissemination of our findings. The research had three phases: (i) desk study of existing policies, their underlying assumptions and understandings of the environment and sustainable development; (ii) case studies of how pro-biofuels assumptions compare with practices in three countries; (iii) an international workshop with civil society organisations to discuss preliminary results and to exchange ideas on possible directions for future research and advocacy; and (iv) a synthesis of results challenging EU policy assumptions.

²The controversy heightened when basic food commodity prices rose to unprecedented levels, sparking riots in several countries. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean Ziegler declared, ‘it's a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into biofuel' (The Independent, 2007). Analysts from a wide spectrum, including the World Bank (Mitchell 2008), pointed to biofuel expansion as a factor driving up food prices. As one article put it, ‘Filling the 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol requires over 450 pounds of corn – which contains enough calories to feed one person for a year. By putting pressure on global supplies of edible crops, the surge in ethanol production will translate into higher prices for both processed and staple foods around the world. Agrofuels have tied oil and food prices together in ways that could profoundly upset the relationships between food producers, consumers, and nations in the years ahead, with potentially devastating implications for both global poverty and food security’ (Runge and Senauer 2007).

³See http://www.econexus.info/biofuels.html

⁴Interviews conducted by Les Levidow with European Commission staff, March 2010. See also Sharman (2009).

⁵Interviews conducted by Les Levidow in Brussels in October and November 2009.

⁶Section based on research by Mireille Hönicke.

⁷Section based on research by Maria Luisa Mendonça.

⁸Section based on research by David Fig. Thanks also to Joseph Hanlon for documentary material and advice.

⁹Interview with Diamantino Nhampossa, speaking for the união Nacional do Camponeses (UNAC), 2 September 2009, Maputo.

¹⁰In 2008 the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Malawi, Mozambique and Sierra Leone (though a joint Open Letter to the Council, Parliament and Commission of the European Communities) objected to proposed sustainability standards for biofuels. They are amongst the countries from which the EU is importing biofuels and biofuel feedstocks.

¹¹Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN International 2009) has identified specific human rights standards in international human rights law related to access to land, water and natural resources, as legally binding for parties to the treaties and covenants listed below, meaning that those states are obliged to respect and protect access to land and other productive resources to assure access to food and the means to acquire it.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Franco

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers and participants in the JPS and Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS) workshop held in Canada in October 2009 for their helpful comments and suggestions.