[Marxism] Biofuel turns out to be an eco-nightmare

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, January 31, 2007
Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 25 ? Just a few years ago, politicians and environmental 
groups in the Netherlands were thrilled by the early and rapid adoption of 
?sustainable energy,? achieved in part by coaxing electrical plants to use 
biofuel ? in particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.

Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic 
that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in 
theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived 
from plants.

But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in 
Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an 
environmental nightmare.

Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge 
tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer 
there.

Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations 
was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts 
of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Considering these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world?s 
third-leading producer of carbon emissions that scientists believe are 
responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China, 
according to a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands 
International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands.

?It was shocking and totally smashed all the good reasons we initially went 
into palm oil,? said Alex Kaat, a spokesman for Wetlands, a conservation group.

The production of biofuels, long a cornerstone of the quest for greener 
energy, may sometimes create more harmful emissions than fossil fuels, 
scientific studies are finding.

As a result, politicians in many countries are rethinking the billions of 
dollars in subsidies that have indiscriminately supported the spread of all 
of these supposedly eco-friendly fuels for vehicles and factories. The 2003 
European Union Biofuels Directive, which demands that all member states aim 
to have 5.75 percent of transportation run by biofuel in 2010, is now under 
review.

?If you make biofuels properly, you will reduce greenhouse emissions,? said 
Peder Jensen, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. ?But that 
depends very much on the types of plants and how they?re grown and 
processed. You can end up with a 90 percent reduction compared to fossil 
fuels ? or a 20 percent increase.?

He added, ?It?s important to take a life-cycle view,? and not to ?just see 
what the effects are here in Europe.?

In the Netherlands, the data from Indonesia has provoked soul-searching, 
and helped prompt the government to suspend palm oil subsidies. The 
Netherlands, a leader in green energy, is now leading the effort to 
distinguish which biofuels are truly environmentally sound.

The government, environmental groups and some of the Netherlands? ?green 
energy? companies are trying to develop programs to trace the origins of 
imported palm oil, to certify which operations produce the oil in a 
responsible manner.

Krista van Velzen, a member of Parliament, said the Netherlands should pay 
compensation to Indonesia for the damage that palm oil has caused. ?We 
can?t only think: does it pollute the Netherlands??

In the United States and Brazil most biofuel is ethanol (made from corn in 
the United States and sugar in Brazil), used to power vehicles made to run 
on gasoline. In Europe it is mostly local rapeseed and sunflower oil, used 
to make diesel fuel.

In a small number of instances, plant oil is used in place of diesel fuel, 
without further refinement. But as many European countries push for more 
green energy, they are increasingly importing plant oils from the tropics, 
since there is simply not enough plant matter for fuel production at home.

On the surface, the environmental equation that supports biofuels is 
simple: Since they are derived from plants, biofuels absorb carbon while 
they are grown and release it when they are burned. In theory that 
neutralizes their emissions.

But the industry was promoted long before there was adequate research, said 
Reanne Creyghton, who runs Friends of the Earth?s campaign against palm oil 
here.

Biofuelswatch, an environment group in Britain, now says that ?biofuels 
should not automatically be classed as renewable energy.? It supports a 
moratorium on subsidies until more research can determine whether various 
biofuels in different regions are produced in a nonpolluting manner.

Beyond that, the group suggests that all emissions arising from the 
production of a biofuel be counted as emissions in the country where the 
fuel is actually used, providing a clearer accounting of environmental costs.

The demand for palm oil in Europe has soared in the last two decades, first 
for use in food and cosmetics, and more recently for fuel. This versatile 
and cheap oil is used in about 10 percent of supermarket products, from 
chocolate to toothpaste, accounting for 21 percent of the global market for 
edible oils.

Palm oil produces the most energy of all vegetable oils for each unit of 
volume when burned. In much of Europe it is used as a substitute for diesel 
fuel, though in the Netherlands, the government has encouraged its use for 
electricity.

Supported by hundreds of millions of euros in national subsidies, the 
Netherlands rapidly became the leading importer of palm oil in Europe, 
taking in 1.7 million tons last year, nearly double the previous year.

The increasing demand has created damage far away. Friends of the Earth 
estimates that 87 percent of the deforestation in Malaysia from 1985 to 
2000 was caused by new palm oil plantations. In Indonesia, the amount of 
land devoted to palm oil has increased 118 percent in the last eight years.

In December, scientists from Wetlands International released their 
calculations about the global emissions caused by palm farming on peatland.

Peat is an organic sponge that stores huge amounts of carbon, helping 
balance global emissions. Peatland is 90 percent water. But when it is 
drained, the Wetlands International scientists say, the stored carbon gases 
are released into the atmosphere.

To makes matters worse, once dried, peatland is often burned to clear 
ground for plantations. The Dutch study estimated that the draining of 
peatland in Indonesia releases 660 million ton of carbon a year into the 
atmosphere and that fires contributed 1.5 billion tons annually.

The total is equivalent to 8 percent of all global emissions caused 
annually by burning fossil fuels, the researchers said. ?These emissions 
generated by peat drainage in Indonesia were not counted before,? said Mr. 
Kaat. ?It was a totally ignored problem.? For the moment Wetlands is 
backing the certification system for palm oil imports.

But some environmental groups say palm oil cannot be produced sustainably 
at reasonable prices. They say palm oil is now cheap because of poor 
environmental practices and labor abuses.

?Yes, there have been bad examples in the palm oil industry,? said Arjen 
Brinkman, a company official at Biox, a young company that plans to build 
three palm oil electrical plants in Holland, using oil from palms grown on 
its own plantations in a manner that it says is responsible.

?But it is now clear,? he said, ?that to serve Europe?s markets for biofuel 
and bioenergy, you will have to prove that you produce it sustainably ? 
that you are producing less, not more CO2.?

--

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