ActionAid’s #biofuels #bigdebate

Walking by the sugarcane / Flickr photo by mvcorks

ActionAid launch their bio fuels campaign today at 18:30 with a #biofuels #bigdebate at the London Transport Museum.  You can ask questions through Twitter and follow the debate live by using the #biofuels and #bigdebate hashtag.  There’s also an ActionAid facebook page.

The event has a good panel of guests:

• Ben Webster, Environment Editor at The Times (Chair)
• Greg Archer, Director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and co-author of the Gallagher review
• Professor Keith Smith from the University of Edinburgh
• Tim Rice, Biofuel Policy Officer for ActionAid UK
• Amancay Colque, Founder of the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign

Bio fuel was briefly regarded as saviour to our thirst for fuel.  A key piece in the mission to green our planet and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.  However, it fast became evident that cultivation of crops like sugar cane for bio fuel exacerbates another fundamental problem, a shortage of food.  The increased demand for food crops also contributes to a rise in global grain prices.

“The amount of crops it takes to fill a 4X4 tank with biofuel would feed a child for a year. Global targets for using more biofuels could therefore push 600 million more people into hunger by 2020.”

- ActionAid

The #bigdebate happening tonight in London is just the beginning of a campaign being launched by ActionAid that will run until June.  By this time it hoped that the government will revise its 2020 target of getting 10% of all petrol and diesel from biofuel.  Already a huge amount of american grain is diverted from the food chain – A quarter of all maize and other grain crops grown in the US now go to fuel cars rather than feed people.

See you at the debate!