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ENERGY: Major Oil Consumers Warm to Biofuels

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 2 2007 (IPS) - Despite their diverse – and sometimes sharply conflicting – political and economic interests, the world’s major powers seem to be getting closer to each other in their quest to develop clean alternative sources of energy.

Top diplomats from the United States, China, Brazil, India, South Africa and the European Commission told a news conference here Friday that they were ready to step up mutual cooperation in the global effort to expand production and use of biofuels.

“We understand that access to renewable sources of energy is fundamental to addressing social and economic problems,” said Thomas Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, at the launch of the International Biofuels Forum.

According to Shannon and others, the six-nation Forum will help create a mechanism to shape the dialogue among the biggest producers and consumers of biofuels in promoting the creation of an international market for those products.

Considering the use of biofuels as a viable economic alternative for the immediate and partial substitution of fossil fuels, the Forum members said they believed that their initiative could be useful for both developing and developed countries.

“For developing countries, to use biofuels means significantly reducing their dependence on imported oil, redressing their trade imbalances and saving income in order to increase investment in health, education and social development,” said Antonio Patriota Brazilian envoy to the United States, whose country has taken a lead in biofuels consumption.

In addition to environmental benefits, in his view, the use of biofuels could also prove helpful in reducing the migration of rural populations to urban areas.

Reflecting on the need for increased use of biofuels in developed countries, Brazil’s Patriota said it would enhance their energy security and reduce dependence on fossil fuels that contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Biofuels have the potential to mobilise investments in research and development of associate technologies,” he added. “They would accelerate the process of a paradigm shift in the global use of energy.”

Brazil is the world’s leading producer of ethanol, which it makes from sugarcane. In the United States, ethanol is mainly extracted from corn.

The United States, due its extreme dependence on fossil fuel, is responsible for about 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. And unlike most other developed countries, the U.S. has not ratified the international treaty on climate change known as Kyoto Protocol.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the U.S. to take the lead in fighting global warming. In a statement, Ban warned that climate change posed “as much of a danger to the world as war.”

Nearly half of the world’s oil is currently consumed by the United States, Canada and Western Europe, but the growing economies of China and India are putting further pressure on the supply side.

Though the industrialised world is still largely responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, many experts say this scenario may change in coming decades, with China exceeding the U.S. as the biggest emitter by around 2020.

Mindful of the need for diversity in the use of energy sources, Liu Zhenmin, the Chinese envoy to the U.N., seemed fully supportive of his Brazilian colleague’s views on biofuels.

“We are delighted to be part of this forum,” he said about the initiative for a sustained dialogue on the enhanced use and marketing of biofuels. “It’s good for improving socially-(oriented) economic development. It would help mitigate climate change.”

However, in explaining his country’s growing energy needs for more than one billion people, he added: “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is our long-term project for economic and social development, so we are starting to use biofuels. But it is not the only source.”

The Forum, according to its members, will hold regular meetings for a period of one year during which it will examine the international standards and codes for biofuels, its infrastructure and logistics, as well as the issues related to the commodification and distribution of products.

The Forum is meant to provide a mechanism for the exchange of information on the production, use and marketing of biofuels products, and thus does not have any international enforcement powers, they said.

When asked why Russia, one of the world’s largest oil-producing nations, is not part of the Forum, the Brazilian diplomat told IPS that officials from his government were in touch with their Russian counterparts and that there were indications that Moscow would eventually be part of the initiative.

“It is not a closed club,” he said. “We hope other players would also join us in the future.”

For his part, Esa Paasivirta, charge d’affairs of the European Commission’s delegation described the creation of the Forum as a “big step forward,” and said it would “help the world address its environmental concerns.”

“The world needs increased cooperation in the area of addressing climate change,” he said, adding that the use of biofuels “can use contribute to lessening greenhouse gas emissions.”

Explaining his country’s decision to join the Biofuels Forum, R.K. Mehta, a senior official from India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said the government has joined the biofuels programme “not for just energy security, but also jobs creation.”

Patriota said Brazil, which took the initiative to create the Forum, plans to host an international conference on biofuels in June 2008.

The U.N. secretary-general said he would focus on the issue of climate change in talks with leaders of the G8 group of industrialised nations in June.

The U.N. is also due to hold a conference on climate change in Bali in December.