EU Development Days: Panel on Promoting Biofuels, Creating Scarcity?

On 16-17 October, the European Commission is hosting EU Development Days, a two-day forum on international affairs and development cooperation that will see Heads of State, Nobel Prize laureates, business leaders, and development professionals meet to discuss some of the global issue that are at risk of slipping down the international agenda in the wake of the economic crisis.

17 October. Panel on Promoting Biofuels, Creating Scarcity? This Panel was organised by ActionAid International, International Alliance of Catholic Development Agencies - CIDSE, European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development - Concord, Cyrpus ISland-wide NGO Development Platform - CYINDEP, EuropAfrica, Oxfam International.

Panelists

• Jasmin Battista, Personal Assistant to Commissioner Oettinger, Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission 
• Phil Bloomer, Director, Campaigns and Policy, Oxfam Great Britain Belinda Calaguas, Head of Campaigns and Advocacy, ActionAid International 
• Roman Herre, Policy Coordinator on EU Agrofuels policy, Food First Information and Action Network - FIAN 
• Johan Kuylenstierna, Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institute 
• Rehmawati Retno Winami, Programme Director, Sawit Watch Indonesia 
• Stina Soewarta, Member of Cabinet, Directorate-GEneral for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid, European Commission 
• Rob Vierhout, Secretary General, ePure 

Aid and rights groups have welcomed the European Commission's plan to limit the use of biofuels made from land crops, but urged the EU to go further to help stop farmers in developing countries being forced from their fields.

Belinda Calaguas, Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at ActionAid International, welcomed the Commission's turnaround, and the acknowledgement that there is a catastrophic link between the use of certain biofuels and land-grabbing, price hikes and hunger.

The European Commission has proposed to halve the quantity of food-based biofuels used to meet the EU's 10 % renewable energy target. The move, which could take two years to come into force, is aimed at stimulating the use of second and third generation biofuels from materials like straw, algae or waste. Such fuel sources emit less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels and do not interfere with global food production.

Indonesia is one of the countries most affected by palm oil production. Palm oil producers obtain operating permits from local administrations rather than the central government. The Programme Director at Sawit Watch Indonesia, Rahmawati Retno Winarni, said that farming communities there face jail or violence if they protest against being evicted from their land. She said the EU has the power to influence events on the ground, particularly if the Union's policy includes free and fair community consent in the handover of land.

Phil Bloomer, Director, Campaigns and Policy, Oxfam Great Britain, said that at least 200 million hectares of land has changed hands, much of it without proper compensation, and that the major driver for this has been biofuels.

According to 2010 data, biofuels make up about 4.7 % of the EU's energy mix, with food-based fuels accounting for just over 4 %. The Commission plans to phase out subsidies for these first generation fuels by 2020, to focus on second and third generation biofuels.

Jasmin Battista, Personal Assistant to EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, said the best way forward is to establish a clear framework for making biofuels sustainable. Those which provide few benefits over fossil fuels should be discarded, while attention should also be given to high prices and price volatility. People must also reconsider how they produce and consume food, she said.

Robert Vierhout, the Secretary General of ePURE - the European renewable ethanol industry group - said that there was no connection between biofuels and high food prices. He also said that Europe does not import any ethanol from Africa for fuel use, only for beverages and industrial purposes.

Producing rural energy from cassava waste

CleanStar Mozambique sustainable cooking fuel facility (Video 02:52). The biofuel manufacturing plant enables innovative food and household energy venture to improve family health, increase farmer incomes and nutrition, and protect Mozambique's forests.

CleanStar Mozambique is an integrated food, energy, and forest protection business that works with farmers to grow a variety of crops that it then processes into food and cooking fuel products for sale in local markets.

CleanStar Mozambique helps participating farmers transition from slash-and-burn subsistence farming to a “conservation-agriculture” based approach that produces sustainable crop surpluses and boosts their income. The company provides the farmers with improved planting materials and technical assistance and then purchases whatever food products the families themselves do not consume at rural agricultural centers based around the company’s first integrated processing plant in Dondo.

Surplus cassava is converted to ethanol-based cooking fuel, flour, and chicken feed, while surplus beans, sorghum, pulses, and soya are processed into packaged food products for sale in Mozambique’s cities.

Each bottle of cooking fuel used in Maputo generates extra income and food for Mozambican farmers and prevents further deforestation from charcoal use. Over time, this steady flow of cash will help strengthen rural livelihoods and restore degraded landscapes.

The cooking fuel is bottled and sold along with modern cookstoves to low-income households in Maputo via the company’s own network of branded retail outlets. CleanStar’s cooking solution is a cleaner, faster, and safer alternative to charcoal, and priced to be directly cost competitive in urban markets. Charcoal prices have doubled in Maputo over the last three years and households now spend about a dollar a day on the fuel which requires valuable time to ignite and use. Cooking indoors with charcoal also seriously damages the health of those exposed to the noxious fumes, most often women and children.

16th October. Brussels. European Development Days.

Interview with Tom Middleton PANGEA: PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE AFRICAN BIOENERGY

Based in Brussels, PANGEA acts as a unified voice for its diverse membership; working to establish an enabling policy environment for African Bioenergy through lobbying, research, and regular events.

Tom answers following questions:

• What are the research priorities for an NGO active in biofuel and sustainable energy?
• Is rural energy receiving enough attention?
• Who was involved in the clean cook stove initiative in Mozambique?
• Is the clean cook stove initiative in Mozambique replicable?

Related:

Maria Doua of Mozambique cooks indoors
with an ethanol-fueled cooking stove,
in the Mozambican capital Maputo.

September 19, 2012. NEW YORK. Wall Street Journal. Soros Fund Invests in Mozambique Ethanol Project  – Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros's nonprofit group has invested $6 million in an ethanol project in Mozambique that will offer families in the Southern African country an alternative to polluting charcoal.

Soros Economic Development Fund and the Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) (financed by the Danish Government) invest Millions in Food Security and Clean Cooking Venture in Africa. Funding for CleanStar Mozambique benefits smallholder farmers and the environment, creates jobs, and protects families from indoor air pollution 

To increase food security in Africa and stem the disastrous human and environmental costs of indoor cooking with charcoal, the Soros Economic Development Fund and the Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries invest nearly $9 million in CleanStar Mozambique, with the option to invest more in potential pan-African expansion.

Stewart Paperin SEDF

“CleanStar Mozambique has found a commercial and scalable way to alleviate poverty in Africa,” said Stewart Paperin, president of the Soros Economic Development Fund. “This venture creates jobs, increases food security, and has sustainable environmental benefits. We’d like to see the charcoal replacement business operate successfully in dozens of countries throughout the continent.”

With over $10 billion spent annually on charcoal-based cooking across the rapidly-urbanizing continent, CleanStar’s business model is likely to be feasible in over 40 major African cities.

The new investment will create 1,000 new jobs in Mozambique by late 2014 and will help to substantially improve the incomes of smallholder farmers. CleanStar Mozambique will be able to support 2,000 smallholder farming families to increase production of nutritious staple food crops and surplus cassava, with the latter being used to make ethanol-based cooking fuel.

Finn Jønck, IFU

The investment will also help the company expand its cooking fuel distribution and retail infrastructure to reach 80,000 customers in Maputo by late 2014. Each ethanol cook stove will enable net greenhouse gas emissions reductions of approximately eight tons of CO2-equivalent per year versus a traditional charcoal stove. Taken to scale, this business will significantly reduce harmful emissions that contribute to climate change.

“Our team has seen this venture move from concept into implementation in record time,” said Finn Jønck, IFU’s Managing Director. “We are delighted to now come on board.”

About the Soros Economic Development Fund
The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) is a nonprofit private foundation that is part of the Open Society Foundations, a network of charitable foundations created by investor and philanthropist George Soros. SEDF supports economic development in post-conflict countries and in nations transitioning to democracy. We promote economic opportunities and access to information, products and services for underserved populations. SEDF invests in sustainable businesses or initiatives that strive to alleviate poverty by creating jobs and revitalizing deteriorating communities. Established in 1997, SEDF has over $200 million in investment capital and employs 15 people in New York, Budapest, Freetown, Johannesburg and Nairobi.

About CleanStar Ventures
CleanStar Ventures is a venture development partnership that harnesses business and technology innovation to drive social development and environmental restoration. CleanStar Ventures combines early-stage risk capital, technology, and expertise to create sustainable long-term value for the customers, partners, and shareholders in its ventures. Headquartered in New York, CleanStar has portfolio ventures under development in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

About The Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries

The Industrialization Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) is an independent self-governing fund established in 1967 by Act of Parliament. IFU is financed by the Danish Government with the purpose of promoting economic activity in developing countries by investing on commercial terms in these countries in partnership with Danish companies. Since 1967, IFU has made more than 750 investments in 85 countries with a total investment of more than $1.5 billion.

About Novozymes 

Novozymes is the world leader in bioinnovation. Together with customers across a broad array of industries we create tomorrow’s industrial biosolutions, improving our customers' business and the use of our planet's resources. With over 700 products used in 130 countries, Novozymes’ bioinnovations improve industrial performance and safeguard the world’s resources by offering superior and sustainable solutions for tomorrow’s ever-changing marketplace. 

New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa

27 April 2012. guardian.co.uk. New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa. World's largest public database lifts lid on the extent and secretive nature of the global demand for land.

Almost 5% of Africa's agricultural land has been bought or leased by investors since 2000, according to an international coalition of researchers and NGOs that has released the world's largest public database of international land deals.

The database, lifts the lid on a decade of secretive deals struck by governments, investors and speculators seeking large tracts of fertile land in developing countries around the world.

The past five years have seen a flood of reports of investors snapping up land at rock-bottom prices in some of the world's poorest countries. But, despite growing concern about the local impacts of so-called "land grabs", the lack of reliable data has made it difficult to pin down the real extent and nature of the global rush for land.

Researchers estimate that more than 200m hectares (495m acres) of land – roughly eight times the size of the UK – were sold or leased between 2000 and 2010. Details of 1,006 deals covering 70.2m hectares mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America were published by the Land Matrix project, an international partnership involving five major European research centres and 40 civil society and research groups from around the world.

It is the first time a comprehensive list of international land deals has been collected and made public. The database relies on a wide variety of sources – including media reports, academic research and field-based investigations – to add detail to a global phenomenon notoriously shrouded in secrecy.

A separate report published on 25 April 2012 by the International Land Coalition, the NGO Global Witness, and the US-based Oakland Institute, denounced the "secretive culture" around large-scale land deals, and demanded governments and businesses disclose contracts and detailed information about potential risks and impacts of land-based investments.

"Far too many people are being kept in the dark about massive land deals that could destroy their homes and livelihoods," says Megan MacInnes, senior land campaigner at Global Witness. "Companies should have to prove they are doing no harm, rather than communities with little information or power having to prove that a land deal is negatively affecting them."

How rural communities can benefit from bioenergy development

5 March 2012, Rome - FAO has released a suite of guidance documents and policymaking tools that governments can use to help rural communities benefit from bioenergy development and ensure that biofuel crop production does not come at the expense of food security.

Materials released by FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators (BEFSCI) Project include: methodologies for assessing the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of bioenergy production, indicators that can be measured when doing so, recommended good practices, and policy measures for promoting sustainable bionenergy development.

"In a few months the international community will gather for the Rio+20 conference to explore new ways to combat rural poverty and promote sustainable development. Undertaken responsibly and where appropriate, bioenergy production can offer farmers and rural people the opportunity to take part in building a new green economy, and can help counter the effects of decades of underinvestment in developing world agriculture and rural areas," said Alexander Mueller, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources Management and Environment.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the BEFSCI project was initiated to study the complex relationship between bioenergy and food security and help policymakers make informed decisions regarding bioenergy development.

The project has generated a number of products, including: a web-based tool for assessing potential food security impacts of bioenergy projects; a comprehensive list of methodologies and indicators to assess the impacts of bioenergy on food security at the national level; a set of good environmental practices to minimize negative environmental impacts; and a compilation of socio-economic practices currently being implemented by producers that provide examples of how bioenergy development can foster rural development and enhance food security.

The project also assembled an inventory of management and policy measures that can be used to address negative social, food security or environmental impacts of bioenergy production. And it has explored how to better include smallholders in global bioenergy value chains.

Additionally, a BEFSCI briefing paper identifies and analyzes various policy instruments that governments and planners can use to require or promote good practices in bioenergy. "The paper looks at the pros, cons and appropriateness of these various instruments, so that governments who are just beginning to wrestle with these issues can learn from the experiences of others," explained Heiner Thofern, who heads up the BEFSCI project at FAO.

Europe, Africa and food security: European policies, biofuels and land grabbing conference

28 February 2012. This conference was co-organised by EuropAfrica-toward food sovereignty and CONCORD. Supported by European Union-funded project “Awareness raising on the on the relations between European policies and agricultural development in Africa”.

It covered following topics:

Mamadou Goita of ROPPA

• The Right to Food and Biofuels – Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food. This intervention by the Special Rapporteur drew on the briefing on this topic that he will be releasing in early March and his reading of the EuropAfrica report.
• Policy coherence targeting food security in Africa – EuropAfrica: Nora McKeon, Terra Nuova. This intervention illustrated the objectives and methodology of EuropAfrica’s policy coherence monitoring, which takes as its reference points the promotion of food security and sustainable small-scale production.
• Food Security and Rural development in Africa - Rural Development, Food Security and Nutrition Unit, Directorate General Development and Cooperation. A presentation by Chantal Symoens of the EU’s strategy and policy guidelines for promoting food security and sustainable small-holder food production in Africa.
• The EU and biofuels – Directorate General Energy and Transport. A presentation by Ruta Baltause of the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC (RED) and plans for its assessment during 2012.
• European energy policies and land grabbing in Africa – Roman Herre and Sylvain Aubry, Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN). Presentation of the main findings of the EuropAfrica 2011 report.
• African small-scale farmers’ concerns regarding land grabbing and biofuels – Mamadou Goita, Executive Secretary of ROPPA
• Land grabbing in East Africa – Annick Sezibera, CAPAD, Burundi and EAFF
• Land grabbing and biofuels in Senegal – Marius Dia, CNCR, Senegal

Background
The report referred to and the launch event are part of the project “Awareness raising on the relations between European policies and agricultural development in Africa”, co-funded by the European policies and agricultural development in Africa”, co-funded by the European Commission | DCI – NSAED/2010/240-529. (Bio)Fueling Injustice? [1.6MB]
The report presented at the launch event on Februrary 28 is co-sponsored by the EuropAfrica platform, composed of European NGOs and the regional farmers' platforms of West, Central and East Africa (ROPPA, PROPAC and EAFF), and by CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs.

What is EuropAfrica? EuropAfrica - Towards Food Sovereignty, is a campaign that connects African farmers' platforms of West, Central and East Africa (ROPPA, PROPAC and EAFF) and European NGOs (Terra Nuova, Centro Internazionale Crocevia, Collectif Stratégies Alimentaires/CSA, Vredeseilanden, Practical Action, Glopolis). It supports the attainment of food sovereignty, both in Africa and in Europe, without impeding the food sovereignty of others. 

What is FIAN ? FIAN (FoodFirst Information and Action Network) is an international human right organisation organization that has advocated for the realization of the human right to food for more than 25 years.  

What is Policy Coherence for Development (PCD)? Policy Coherence for Development is about ensuring that the aims and objectives of EU development co-operation policy are not undermined by other EU policies.

Press coverage: FIAN (FoodFirst Information and Action Network) 28/02/2012 EU must stop bio-fuelling injustice and hunger in Africa
Africa Online 28/02/2012 EU must stop bio-fuelling injustice and hunger in Africa

Related: 28 February 2012 Danish EU Presidency to push for development friendly CAP
Europe's farm policy should take into account its impact on developing countries and be more coherent with anti-poverty efforts announced the Danish Presidency of the European Union.

Speaking at a conference on Trade, Development and Agriculture on 28/02 organised by CONCORD Denmark and the Danish Agriculture Council in Copenhagen, Friis Bach, Minister for Development Cooperation declared:
"Denmark will strive to promote the Policy Coherence for Development agenda during our EU Presidency. PCD is not just another ingredient of the alphabet soup, but all about making our development efforts more effective, transparent and inclusive. With clear consequences for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable groups."

Welcoming the positive approach of the Danish Presidency, Olivier Consolo, Director of CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for Relief and Development said:
"Today the Danish Presidency has stood up for a major improvement in the CAP reform that can reduce the policies negative impacts in poor countries. More EU member states should go Danish when it comes to pushing for the CAP to be more coherent with development objectives. To improve the CAP, the EU Commission needs to establish impact and monitoring mechanisms so that overseas impacts can be fully assessed.”

Pekka Pesonen, secretary-general of EU umbrella farming body Copa-Cogeca said over a billion people in the world remain in hunger today. He said international efforts should focus on ensuring a ‘substantial increase’ in agricultural investment.

Related: Rising Global Interest in Farmland. Released in draft form in September 2010 and in hard copy in January 2011, the study Rising Global Interest in Farmland --Can it yield sustainable and equitable benefits? compiles country inventories of large land transfers during 2004-09 in 14 countries, identifies global drivers of land supply and demand and highlights how country policies affect land use, household welfare and distributional outcomes at the local level. It establishes a typology, classifying countries by the size of suitable available land and yield gaps and proposes paths for responsible agricultural investments that would contribute to positive social, economic and environmental outcomes.