Scientist: U.S. corn subsidies drive deforestation in the Amazon
The Brazilian government and environmentalists alike hailed a recent, historic decline in deforestation rates in Brazil. Since 2004, the deforestation rate has fallen by more than 60 percent, despite high commodity prices and a major growth in biofuel production in the country (previous post). The trend continued in the first half of 2007, with a 31 percent drop (graph, click to enlarge).
Meanwhile, the public at large learned that sugarcane used for Brazil's ethanol is not grown in the rainforest, but a thousand miles south of the Amazon. All of this is good news. But the Smithsonian Tropical Institute's staff scientist William Laurance now thinks Amazon deforestation and fires could be reappearing as a result of lavish US farm subsidies.
According to Laurance, whose findings were reported in a letter to Science, a recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for first generation ethanol. This inefficient ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel. American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers — and this is having some surprising global consequences, he writes. (More on US biofuels subsidies here).
The US is the world's leading producer of soy, but many American soy farmers are shifting to corn to qualify for the government subsidies. Since 2006, US corn production rose 19% while soy farming fell by 15%.
The drop-off in US soy has helped to drive a major increase in global soy prices, which have nearly doubled in the last 14 months. In Brazil, the world's second-largest soy producer, high soy prices are having a serious impact on the Amazon rainforest and tropical savannas.
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: corn :: soya :: commodities :: subsidies :: deforestation :: U.S. :: Brazil ::
Finally, wealthy soy farmers are lobbying for major new Amazon highways to transport their soybeans to market, and this is increasing access to forests for loggers and land speculators.
Laurance emphasized that he was not the first person to suggest that US corn subsidies could indirectly harm the Amazon. "But now we're seeing that these predictions - first made last summer - are being borne out. The evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."
Graph: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 1988-2007. Credit: Mongabay.
References:
William Laurance, "Switch to Corn Promotes Amazon Deforestation", Science, 14 December 2007: 1721b, DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5857.1721b
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Corn... fuel... fire! U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon de forestation, December 17, 2007.
Biopact: Subsidies for uncompetitive U.S. biofuels cost taxpayers billions - report - October 26, 2006
Biopact: Deforestation rate in Amazon decreased by 25% between 2005 and 2006 - August 13, 2007
Mongabay: Amazon deforestation in Brazil falls 31% for 2007 - August 13, 2007.
Article continues
Meanwhile, the public at large learned that sugarcane used for Brazil's ethanol is not grown in the rainforest, but a thousand miles south of the Amazon. All of this is good news. But the Smithsonian Tropical Institute's staff scientist William Laurance now thinks Amazon deforestation and fires could be reappearing as a result of lavish US farm subsidies.
According to Laurance, whose findings were reported in a letter to Science, a recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for first generation ethanol. This inefficient ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel. American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers — and this is having some surprising global consequences, he writes. (More on US biofuels subsidies here).
The US is the world's leading producer of soy, but many American soy farmers are shifting to corn to qualify for the government subsidies. Since 2006, US corn production rose 19% while soy farming fell by 15%.
The drop-off in US soy has helped to drive a major increase in global soy prices, which have nearly doubled in the last 14 months. In Brazil, the world's second-largest soy producer, high soy prices are having a serious impact on the Amazon rainforest and tropical savannas.
Amazon fires and forest destruction have spiked over the last several months, especially in the main soy-producing states in Brazil. Just about everyone there attributes this to rising soy and beef prices. - William Laurance, Smithsonian Tropical Institute staff scientistHigh soy prices affect the Amazon in several ways. Some forests are cleared for soy farms. Farmers also buy and convert many cattle ranches into soy farms, effectively pushing the ranchers further into the Amazonian frontier:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: corn :: soya :: commodities :: subsidies :: deforestation :: U.S. :: Brazil ::
Finally, wealthy soy farmers are lobbying for major new Amazon highways to transport their soybeans to market, and this is increasing access to forests for loggers and land speculators.
Laurance emphasized that he was not the first person to suggest that US corn subsidies could indirectly harm the Amazon. "But now we're seeing that these predictions - first made last summer - are being borne out. The evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."
Graph: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 1988-2007. Credit: Mongabay.
References:
William Laurance, "Switch to Corn Promotes Amazon Deforestation", Science, 14 December 2007: 1721b, DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5857.1721b
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Corn... fuel... fire! U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon de forestation, December 17, 2007.
Biopact: Subsidies for uncompetitive U.S. biofuels cost taxpayers billions - report - October 26, 2006
Biopact: Deforestation rate in Amazon decreased by 25% between 2005 and 2006 - August 13, 2007
Mongabay: Amazon deforestation in Brazil falls 31% for 2007 - August 13, 2007.
Article continues
Friday, January 04, 2008
Report: biogas can replace all EU natural gas imports
Last year, the German Greens (Grüne) commissioned a report on the potential of biogas in Europe. The Öko-Instituts and the Institut für Energetik in Leipzig carried out the study and came to some startling conclusions: Germany alone can produce more biogas by 2020 than all of the EU's current natural gas imports from Russia. German TV channel ZDF made a reportage about the findings, which Biopact translated.
The biogas sector is booming in Germany and has become the continent's fastest renewable energy sector. Market leader Schmack Biogas just recently received a €130 million investment to expand its activities - one of last year's largest renewable energy deals. The company is involved in several new large scale projects.
The growing interest in the gaseous biofuel can be easily explained: it can be produced in a decentralised manner, it is highly efficient - yielding more than twice as much energy per hectare of energy crops than ethanol from similar crops - and it can be obtained in a straightforward way from a large variety of biomass resources (organic waste, manure, dedicated energy crops). What is more, the fuel has two highly efficient uses: as a gas for CNG-capable vehicles (taking you twice around the world on a hectare's worth of biogas) as well as a fuel that can be used for the cogeneration of power and heat. Meanwhile, advances in biogas technology, microbiology and crop engineering have made production even more efficient.
Now, producers in Germany want to go a step further. They want to start feeding upgraded biogas into the main natural gas grid and cover the entire EU. There is only one problem standing in their way: their purified biogas, also known as biomethane, is too good for the natural gas pipelines. That is, its heating value is too high. As the only country in Europe, Germany imposes an upper quality limit on gas. The German Greens and the country's environmentalists and farmers are therefor asking for a new law that allows producers to feed their superior, renewable and green gas into the national pipelines.
Biopact reported earlier on the biogas report, here. And meanwhile, the German government has taken first steps towards crafting a 'biogas feed-in law' that forces pipeline operators to open their network for biogas. The biofuel can ultimately break the monopoly of the current gas suppliers. Biopact will track this exciting story as it unfolds further this year.
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: biogas :: biomethane :: efficiency :: natural gas :: energy independence :: Germany :: EU ::
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 8:13 PM 1 comments links to this post