0.14 Related issues in sustainable development and the environment  (Page 5/7)

Of course we already know that the U.S. ethanol subsidy is a horrible example of Green backfire. The three we cover today are:

1. The EU policy of requiring that the first 10%, and in 2020, 20% of transport fuels be “renewable”
2. The EU decision that classifies wood as a renewable source of fuel
3. EU rules and regulations on GM food which are far more restrictive than such rules in the U.S.

Green backfires, biofuels and biofools

The first green backfire was also a sixth reason for rapid tropical deforestation, in addition to the five others discussed earlier. The origins of this backfire: European Union policymakers believed that using palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels would results in carbon savings of 56% over fossil fuels. But they did not take into account the deforestation driven by increased palm oil production. As a result, huge swaths of Indonesian tropical forests were cleared to meet rapidly growing European needs for palm oil.

Palm oil trees grow only in the tropics. In tropical nations, one obtains palm oil first by forest clearing, then planting palm oil trees. Malaysia was long the largest palm oil producer, harvesting the product from plantations that are now over 40-50 years old. But Indonesia palm oil output has grown very rapidly since 1985. Together Malaysia and Indonesia produce 80% of the world’s palm oil.

Palm oil production exploded in Indonesia after 1985 because of the world’s headlong and often ill-advised rush to biofuels, in the belief that biofuels are always renewable or “ green ”, that use of biofuels to replace fossil fuels will reduce CO ² emissions.

Palm oil has been increasingly used as a feedstock for biofuels in Europe. In 2003 the EU enacted a stiff requirement to promote palm oil as a biofuel to reduce usage of gasoline and diesel fuel. Huge areas in the Indonesian tropical forest were cleared to enable planning of palm oil trees. As a result, palm oil exports from Indonesia grew very rapidly from 2003-2007. Then in 2007, the EU raised the biofuel target to 10% of transport fuels for the year 2020, further boosting the demand for palm oil, and boosting the Indonesian export price of palm oil. AS a result, Indonesia’s palm oil exports grew from only $200 million in 1990 to nearly $8 billion in 2007: a 40 fold increase!!

In the process the Indonesian natural forest was being sacrificed so that Europe could reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons: deforestation caused by biofools promoting biofuels. But : on balance CO ² emissions have as a result likely increased, not decreased, contrary to the intended outcome.

Even GreenPeace, an outfit not primarily known for hard-headed economic analysis, has condemned the conversion of forests to palm oil production to satisfy Europe’s fuel needs.

Their quest for “clean” fuel led to a cleaning out of the tropical forest. But there is more . This kind of forest conversion now has become a very serious threat to the existence of many forest animals, especially orangutans. The name means in Indonesian “man of the forest”.