OECD on BioFuels

Reuters reports that the OECD has stated that biofuels may

"offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal."

"The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits.

"When acidification, fertilizer use, biodiversity loss and toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel."

"The OECD said tax incentives put in place in many regions, including the European Union and the United States, to encourage biofuel output could hide other objectives. 'Biofuel policies may appear to be an easy way to support domestic agriculture against the backdrop of international negotiations to liberalize agricultural trade,' it said." (Emphasis added)

"Instead it encouraged members of the World Trade Organization to step efforts to lower barriers to biofuel imports to allow developing countries that have ecological and climate systems more suited to biomass production.

...

"The OECD, which said in July that it saw biofuels keeping prices at high levels into the next decade, said it would lead to an unavoidable 'food-versus-fuel' debate.

"'Any diversion of land from food or feed production to production of energy biomass will influence food prices from the start, as both compete for the same input,' it said."