Subsidies
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Bioenergy > Issues > Subsidies
Information about biofuels and bioenergy and subsidies.
Contents |
Resources
- Global Subsidies Initiative - The Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development "is a project designed to put the spotlight on subsidies and the corrosive effects they can have on environmental quality, economic development and governance."
Events
News
- The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanol’s Hidden Costs, 11 March 2010 opinion piece by C. Ford Runge in Yale environment360: "Despite strong evidence that growing food crops to produce ethanol is harmful to the environment and the world’s poor, the Obama administration is backing subsidies and programs that will ensure that half of the U.S.’s corn crop will soon go to biofuel production. It’s time to recognize that biofuels are anything but green."
- President Obama "and his administration have wholeheartedly embraced corn ethanol and the tangle of government subsidies, price supports, and tariffs that underpin the entire dubious enterprise of using corn to power our cars. In early February, the president threw his weight behind new and existing initiatives to boost ethanol production from both food and nonfood sources, including supporting Congressional mandates that would triple biofuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022."
- "Yet a close look at their impact on food security and the environment — with profound effects on water, the eutrophication of our coastal zones from fertilizers, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions — suggests that the biofuel bandwagon is anything but green."[1]
- (U.K.'s largest power station) Drax suspends plan to replace coal with greener fuel, 19 February 2010 by Times Online: "Britain’s biggest power station has suspended its plan to replace coal with greener fuel, leaving the Government little chance of meeting its target for renewable energy."
- "The power station, which is the country’s largest single source of CO2, has invested £80 million in a processing unit for wood, straw and other plant-based fuels, known as biomass."
- "Drax is also one of dozens of companies delaying investments in new biomass power stations because of uncertainty over the Government’s policy on long-term subsidies. Hundreds of farmers growing biomass crops may now struggle to sell their produce."
- "The Renewable Energy Association said that plans for more than 50 biomass projects, totalling £13 billion of investment, had been suspended because of uncertainty over policy."[2]
- Biofuels for the poor, 23 March 2009 opinion piece in The Jakarta Post: "After being criticized for being slow to develop the local biofuel industry, the Indonesian government has finally issued two important policies; first, a decree issued last year obliging industries and the transportation sector to use biofuels; and second, its recent decision to provide subsidies for sales of the fuel."[3]
- UK 'should end biofuel subsidies', 26 August 2008 by BBC News: The UK "government should stop funding biofuels and use the money to halt the destruction of rainforests and peatland instead, a think tank has said."
- The RTFO [Renewable Transportation Fuel Obligation] is designed to cut up to three million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, but Policy Exchange said investing in the protection of peatland or rainforests could result in a '50 times greater amount of avoided emission'".
- Download the Policy Exchange report, The Root of the Matter: Carbon Sequestration in Forests and Peatlands (PDF file)
- Facing criticism, biofuels industry forms new lobby group to influence lawmakers, 25 July 2008 by mongabay.com: "Under attack by politicians, aid groups, and environmentalists for driving up food prices and fueling destruction of ecologically sensitive habitats, some of the world's largest agroindustrial firms have formed a lobby group to influence consumers and lawmakers to support continued subsidies for biofuel production in the United States".
- "The group, known as the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, was created by Archer Daniels Midland Co, DuPont Co, Deere & Co, Monsanto Co and the Renewable Fuels Association".
- "The group will promote genetically modified crops to improve crops yields as a solution to meeting global food needs. It does not aim to curtail biofuel production and will lobby Congress to keep subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel production in place".
- US and EU urged to cut biofuels, 7 July 2008, BBC World News: "World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to feed the hungry."
- U.N. Chief to Prod Nations On Food Crisis, 2 June 2008 by the Washington Post: "U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will issue an urgent plea to world leaders at a food summit in Rome on Tuesday to immediately suspend trade restrictions, agricultural taxes and other price controls that have helped fuel the highest food prices in 30 years, according to U.N. officials....The United Nations will also urge the United States and other nations to consider phasing out subsidies for food-based biofuels -- such as ethanol".
- The article notes that a "World Bank analyst estimated that biofuel production has accounted for 65 percent in the rise of world food prices, while the IMF has concluded that biofuel production is responsible for 'a significant part of the jump in commodity prices.'"[4]
- Europe, Cutting Biofuel Subsidies, Redirects Aid to Stress Greenest Options, 22 January 2008, The New York Times: "Governments in Europe and elsewhere have begun rolling back generous, across-the-board subsidies for biofuels, acknowledging that the environmental benefits of these fuels have often been overstated....But as they aim to be more selective, these governments are discovering how difficult it can be to figure out whether a particular fuel — much less a particular batch of corn ethanol or rapeseed biodiesel — has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner."
- The article notes that "Several countries — including Australia, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, as well as parts of Canada — have removed or are revising incentives for farmers, biofuel refiners and distributors."
Reports
- Biofuels — At What Cost? Government support for ethanol and biodiesel in selected OECD countries (PDF file) - September 2007, by the Global Subsidies Initiative. From the description:
- "Government support for biofuels has soared in recent years as policy makers have sought ways to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, especially petroleum. However, up to now the full extent of this support has not been documented. Yet informed public debate over the cost-effectiveness and impacts of biofuel policies is impossible without such information."[5]
- This report "is a synthesis of individual country reports which are being released over the course of 2006 and 2007."[6]
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