Flickr photo: Senor Sodo

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing humanity today

Many solutions have been sought and governments around the world have made pledges to find more renewable energy sources

Flickr photo: Green_Mamba

Biofuels are seen as innovative, environmentally friendly and a step in the right direction

Photo: ActionAid

Flickr Photo : Nic’s Events

The UK government is currently planning how it will meet reduced emissions targets for the transport

sector set by the EU

Good right?

Photo: Atul Loke/PANOS/ActionAid

Wrong! Industrial biofuels are potentially worse for climate change then the fossil fuels they are meant to

replace

They increase greenhouse gas emissions and harm biodiversity - not to mention alter the lives of farmers and the communities around them

Meet Raju Sona, a farmer northeast India. He gave up food production to grow Jatropha which failed to give him an income. His family are much happier now that he is growing food again.

Photo: Atul Loke/PANOS/ActionAId

Flickr photo: Kecko

Biofuels, like cash crops before them, are following the model of large-scale, monoculture for export

Flickr Photo: slefhatingotaku

The production of industrial biofuels relies on large amounts of fertiliser

Flickr Photo: Mikael Miettinen

The fertilisers release nitrous oxides in large amounts and these greenhouse gases are AT LEAST 300 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide

Not to mention producing biofuels are the least cost effective way to use crops in the fight to reduce emissions

Increased biofuel production creates more demand for land

Photo: James Oatway/PANOS/ActionAid

Julio Ngoene, village chief and farmer, Mozambique. A biofuel company is setting up a project near his village and has taken over – without permission – 85% of the village farmland and destroyed its crops

Photo : Tim Rice/ActionAid

Cutting down rainforests and plowing up grasslands for biofuels releases massive amounts of carbon

Like in Indonesia where rainforests are being cut down to grow palm oil

Flickr Photo : DMahendra

Or it can happen indirectly when farmers are pushed off their land and have to find other places to grow food

Matilde Ngone, Mozambique. Matilde’s land was taken by a biofuel companyPhoto : James Oatway/PANOS/ActionAid

Flick photo: Matt and Kim Rudge

By supporting industrial biofuels the UKgovernment is doing more harm than good

Flickr Photo: Left to right digby graham, david.nikonvscannon

The government should be changing attitudes towards transport and encouraging investment in cleaner technologies

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As if this wasn’t bad enough by supporting industrial biofuels the UK government is causing hunger

photo credit: ActionAidPhoto: ActionAid

Ban Van Tuan is a Vietnamese farmer whose family has been trapped by global food price rises. Everyone has to skip at least one meal a day to cut costs. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD), a third of the rise in agriculture prices foreseen for the next ten years (2008-2017) will be caused by increased demand for industrial biofuels.

Biofuels couldpush another 600million people intohunger within thenext ten years

Chelimo, aged nine, and her aunt Margaret, northern KenyaPhoto: ActionAid

So what do people in the UK think about biofuels?

*YouGov Poll of 2,000 peopleFlickr photo: World Resources Institute Staff

48% of people think that biofuel production leads or contributes to deforestation*

*YouGov Poll of 2,000 peopleFlickr photo : Mikael Mittinen

17% thought it might even cause or contribute to climate change*

*YouGov Poll of 2,000 people. 34% neither agree or disagree with the statement – ‘The UK government should NOT be increasing this amount of biofuel in our petrol’, and 16% don’t know

49% of people have no strong opinion on whether the UK government should be increasing the use of Biofuels in petrol*

Maybe its time we help them and the UK government decide not to rely on the costly red herring that is biofuels

What can we do to make real change?

Visit actionaid.org.uk/biofuels and1. E-mail the Department for Transport2. Lobby your MP 3. Have your say and join the debate 4. Spread the word and make a difference

Biofuels: Stop the disaster before it happens

“What we want is to get our farms back because that is what ourlivelihood is dependent on... we are dying of hunger and there is nothing that we have that is actually our own.”

Matilde Ngoene, mother and farmer,Mozambique, November 2009

Photo: James Oatway/Panos/ActionAid

www.actionaid.org.uk

Figures from YouGov plc: Total sample size was 2000 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th - 21st December 2009.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+)