The biofuel debate is electrifying the UN food price crisis summit in Rome, pitting nations against each other and risking transforming bioenergy - once hailed as the ultimate green fuel - into the villain of the piece, the root cause behind global food price spikes.
Biofuel uses the energy contained in organic matter - crops like sugarcane and corn - to produce ethanol, an alternative to fossil-based fuels like petrol.
But campaigners claim the heavily subsidised biofuel industry is fundamentally immoral, diverting land which should be producing food to fill human stomachs to produce fuel for car engines.
They say the growth of biofuels has had a distorting ripple effect on other food crop markets.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Secretary General Jacques Diouf agrees.
He says it is incomprehensible that “$11bn-$12bn (£5.6bn-£6.1bn) a year in subsidies and protective tariff policies have the effect of diverting 100 million tonnes of cereals from human consumption, mostly to satisfy a thirst for vehicles”.
It is a viewpoint shared by Oxfam’s Barbara Stocking, who told the BBC News website: “It takes the same amount of grain to fill an SUV with ethanol as it does to feed a person. We don’t want any more subsidies for biofuels. This rush to biofuels is absolutely dreadful.”
Blame game
Yet the exact ranking of responsibility for the food price rises which have caused political unrest in 30 countries and plunged many into hunger is hotly disputed.
No-one denies that biofuels have a role, but the figures on the sector’s inflationary pressure vary wildly from just 3% to 30%.
The US, Brazil and the EU - the main players on the biofuel stage - maintain that soaring energy costs should shoulder a much larger portion of blame.
“Biofuels are not the villain menacing food security in poor countries,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told assembled heads of state in Rome.
Brazil’s tropical climate allows the country to efficiently grow sugarcane for ethanol production, which now provides 40% of the country’s transport fuel.
“I am sorry to see that many of those who blame ethanol - including ethanol from sugarcane - for the high price of food are the same ones who for decades have maintained protectionist policies to the detriment of farmers in poor countries and of consumers in the entire world.”
The US, which heavily subsidises corn cultivation for ethanol, insists that biofuels account for “only 2-3% of the food price increases”.
“We recognise that biofuels have an impact, but the real issue is about energy, increased consumption and weather-related issues in grain-producing countries,” US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said.
Source - BBC
Showing posts with label Consumers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Consumers. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Monday, 26 May 2008
UK energy prices rising faster than Europe’s
UK power companies are threatening yet another round of price rises that could see bills climb by a total of 46% this year.
Yesterday they were accused of effectively rigging the market against customers by Energywatch, the official consumer body.
It said the big six power generators are on course to collect £6bn in what Energywatch chief executive Allan Asher described as unearned profits in the next few years.
Mr Asher told MPs the industry is exploiting consumers and using immoral tactics. He accused the firms of being bloated and inefficient, with the result that as many as one in three bills are wrong.
He condemned the fact that some of the poorest people in the country have to pay much more for heat and light through prepayment meters. The supliers make £ 1.3bn a year in this way but refuse to help the vast majority of struggling customers.
The Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee is holding an inquiry into rising enegy prices.
Mr Asher said a full-blown Competition Commission inquiry is needed to unravel the secretive power supply contracts that are pushing bills through the roof.
He is particularly alarmed that the power companies are getting fat by tying the price of gas to spiralling oil prices, which have reached record levels recently.
Mr Asher believes this ‘toxic’ link means that annual bills for heat and light are £400 a year higher than they should be.
He said the UK market was ’stitched-up’ with the result that prices in Britain are systematically rising much more quickly than in Europe. ‘It makes a mockery of saying we have a competitive and healthy market,’ he declared.
Over the last ten years, the number of energy firms in the UK has shrunk from 20 to six - British Gas, E.on, Npower, EDF, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power.
These companies not only sell heat and light but are also responsible for producing or importing 80% of gas and electricity.
Mr Asher said this has created a ‘comfortable oligopoly’ with the result that there is a price gap of only £30 a year between the cheapest and most expensive firm based on a dual fuel contract. He said the notion that there was competition in the industry was a myth. ‘There is a lot of pretence of competition, but it doesn’t amount to good companies winning and bad companies losing,’ Mr Asher added.
‘They really don’t feel the need to innovate or compete. Sadly, consumers are the losers. Consumers are getting in the neck.’
Mr Asher said action was needed to encourage new firms to enter the UK market, both to build new generating stations or to sell to the public.
Mr Asher said the 5.8m households who have prepayment meters ‘have to pay punitively higher prices’. He went on: ‘Why is it that pre-payment meter customers are paying up to £400 a year more for the identical commodity? This is an immoral premium.’
For anyone who as not realised yet, this will definately mean the ‘golden age of cheap energy’ is over in the UK and globally.
Source - Heatmyhome
Yesterday they were accused of effectively rigging the market against customers by Energywatch, the official consumer body.
It said the big six power generators are on course to collect £6bn in what Energywatch chief executive Allan Asher described as unearned profits in the next few years.
Mr Asher told MPs the industry is exploiting consumers and using immoral tactics. He accused the firms of being bloated and inefficient, with the result that as many as one in three bills are wrong.
He condemned the fact that some of the poorest people in the country have to pay much more for heat and light through prepayment meters. The supliers make £ 1.3bn a year in this way but refuse to help the vast majority of struggling customers.
The Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee is holding an inquiry into rising enegy prices.
Mr Asher said a full-blown Competition Commission inquiry is needed to unravel the secretive power supply contracts that are pushing bills through the roof.
He is particularly alarmed that the power companies are getting fat by tying the price of gas to spiralling oil prices, which have reached record levels recently.
Mr Asher believes this ‘toxic’ link means that annual bills for heat and light are £400 a year higher than they should be.
He said the UK market was ’stitched-up’ with the result that prices in Britain are systematically rising much more quickly than in Europe. ‘It makes a mockery of saying we have a competitive and healthy market,’ he declared.
Over the last ten years, the number of energy firms in the UK has shrunk from 20 to six - British Gas, E.on, Npower, EDF, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power.
These companies not only sell heat and light but are also responsible for producing or importing 80% of gas and electricity.
Mr Asher said this has created a ‘comfortable oligopoly’ with the result that there is a price gap of only £30 a year between the cheapest and most expensive firm based on a dual fuel contract. He said the notion that there was competition in the industry was a myth. ‘There is a lot of pretence of competition, but it doesn’t amount to good companies winning and bad companies losing,’ Mr Asher added.
‘They really don’t feel the need to innovate or compete. Sadly, consumers are the losers. Consumers are getting in the neck.’
Mr Asher said action was needed to encourage new firms to enter the UK market, both to build new generating stations or to sell to the public.
Mr Asher said the 5.8m households who have prepayment meters ‘have to pay punitively higher prices’. He went on: ‘Why is it that pre-payment meter customers are paying up to £400 a year more for the identical commodity? This is an immoral premium.’
For anyone who as not realised yet, this will definately mean the ‘golden age of cheap energy’ is over in the UK and globally.
Source - Heatmyhome
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