Reuters: IMF Head calls for halt to turning food into fuel, warns worst of hunger is yet to come (Apr 18): here says the head of the IMF

APPCCG Meeting with Professor Lester Brown
Wednesday 5th March, 3-5pm. Committee Room 10, House of Commons.
Professor Lester Brown, Founder and President of the Earth Policy Institute, will speak to the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group on the themes of his latest work: ‘Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.’ Plan B 3.0 focuses on solutions for stabilizing the climate, stabilizing the population, eradicating poverty and restoring the world’s damaged ecosystems. Professor Brown has been named as one of the worlds’ most influential thinkers.

The Synergy Project clubnight, SEOne, London Bridge (admission £20.00), see here.

Line-up includes the following talks:

Climate Abuse - "getting over the addiction!” by Jonathan Essex (02:00-02:40)
As well as speaking for Talk Action Jonathan works for bioregional who focus on "One Planet Living" - creating the possibility from buildings to community actions for sustainable communities based on a visioning framework developed jointly with WWF.

The attached charts show

(i) how poorly temperate agrofuels (liquid biofuels from crops or forestry, excluding algae) compare with wood used directly to replace coal as a land-use for mitigation. In simple terms the latter was found to be 5x-10x more effective. "WTW biomass options slide" taken from Concawe Well-to-Wheels study (2007)

(ii) how biomass (and some hydro dams) are a very poor land-use for energy compared with wind, solar or geothermal - orders of magnitude poorer. "Energy Footprints" taken from Pimentel et al. (2002)

(1) A UK Government/World Bank sponsored report, 4 Jun 07 noted that Indonesia is world's 3rd largest CO2 emitter owing mostly to land use emissions, with palm oil plantations one of the two biggest causes. Source Reuters,
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSJAK26206220070604

(2) The Malaysian Star, 15 May 07 reports: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/5/15/lifefocus/17694218&sec=lifefocus

Hello All

This is from Guardian online (Tuesday 5 June) and just goes to show you that wild weather is not the only cause of displacement. This scenario is really shocking and distressing. All the more reason to reject biofuels as a solution.

Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution

· Colombian farmers driven out as armed groups profit
· Lucrative 'green' crop less risky to grow than coca

Oliver Balch in Mutat and Rory Carroll in Cartagena
Tuesday June 5, 2007
The Guardian

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Between now and 8th March, European politicians will decide whether to introduce higher targets for biofuels without environmental safeguards, and whether rainforest destruction and peat drainage are a price we should pay for 'alternative transport fuels'.

Here is what European groups are doing to try and stop such a destructive policy:

Yesterday, an open letter 'We call on the EU to abandon biofuel targets' was sent to European politicians. 19 organistions signed initially, but this number is now up to over 50. You can find it here: http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2007Jan31-openletterbiofuels.pdf .

Sawit Watch, an NGO which represents communities, farmers and plantation workers affected by oil palm developments in Indonesia, has issued an open letter to politicians and citizens in Europe. They warn Europe's current policy and future plans, which foresee ever greater use of palm oil for biodiesel, will have very serious consequences for global warming, social conflicts and human rights abuses.

Please see the full letter below, and please do circulate it widely. Latin American NGOs sent a similar open letter to the EU earlier this month ("We Want Food Sovereignty, Not Biofuels). A group of European NGOs will do their own open letter/petition later this week.

The European Parliament have now voted on the Biomass Action Plan. They can only make recommendations and the final decision will be made by the European Commission, probably on 10th January.

Some of the European Parliament's resolutions are extremely alarming:

They recognised that, without safeguards, biofuels could cause serious environmental harm, accelerate deforestation and do little to reduce greenhouse gas emission (fine, although they seem to hvae ignored a recent study by European research institutions which warns that one the worst type of biofuels, palm oil from South-east Asian peatlands, is linked to ten times the carbon emissions from an equivalent amount of mineral oil).