Summary
The meeting provided an overview of the biofuels market, its trade opportunities and its economic and environmental sustainability. Participants also discussed how trade can support climate change policy and contribute to an orderly transition to less carbon-intensive economies and to achieving effective, sustainable development.
Climate change poses significant threats to developing countries, which lack resources for dealing with such expected outcomes as higher sea levels, more and fiercer tropical storms and shifts in agricultural zones. But along with all these difficulties there may also be some opportunities. Demand is rising rapidly for biofuels, which do not add to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Farmers in developing countries could be well placed to take advantage, reaping higher incomes from crops such as sugar-cane and jatropha that can be used for fuel. Governments, providing they handle the opportunity carefully, may be able to shield their economies from the effects of rapidly climbing prices for imported oil and natural gas. If well thought-out, the development of biofuels opens up an opportunity to add jobs, raise living standards and mitigate climate change, while providing developing countries with new exports and a partial substitute for oil imports.
Nonetheless, the issue is complex. Depending on circumstances, extensive clearance of new farmland for biofuels production can cause unjustifiable environmental damage. Countries struggling to feed their populations can face rising prices and increased scarcities if tracts of agricultural land are abruptly shifted to produce non-food crops. Moreover, the technology necessary for competitive biofuels production may not be readily available and, even more importantly, may soon become obsolete as new and more efficient technology is developed.
The meeting concluded that if well planned and carried out, production and use of biofuels offers win-win opportunities for developing countries. But to provide these, the biofuels option has to be part of a broad, well-conceived set of national policies and economic strategies.
| Member States attending UNCTAD XII may debate the opportunities and costs of biofuels. In addition, an International Conference on Biofuels is planned by the Brazilian government in November 2008. |