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Dutch: no subsidies for biofuels-driven rainforest destruction mongabay.com October 31, 2007
Key to the decision was research presented by Wetlands International that showed the climate impact of the conversion of carbon-rich peat lands for oil palm plantations. Wetlands found that peat lands conversion and associated fires maybe be responsible for emissions of more than 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide in some years, making Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases despite having the world's twenty-second largest economy. Oil palm plantations in the country have expanded from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 6 million hectares in early 2007.
The Dutch government says it will only consider lifting if the palm oil industry "is able to develop a clear certification scheme that guarantees the fulfillment of sustainability criteria", according to Wetlands. "Such criteria must involve a full carbon account and exclude palm oil produced on peatlands and recently deforested areas. In addition, criteria must take account of social issues." Biofuels = big subsidies for industrial agriculture The biofuels sector is heavily subsidized. According to the Financial Times (October 30, 2007), support for ethanol and biodiesel production in OECD members costs $13 to $15 billion per year. "The cost of support per litre of ethanol varies between $0.29 and $0.36 per litre in the US and $1 in the EU," writes Martin Wolf, author of the Financial Times article. "Support for biodiesel varies between $0.2 per litre in Canada and $1 in Switzerland. But the cost of petrol, in terms of equivalent energy units, is $0.34 and of diesel is $0.41. Thus, the subsidy to biofuels is often greater than the cost of the fossil fuel equivalent."
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