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Study warns of environmental impact of biofuels
The drive to switch over to biofuels could lead to rising food prices and deforestation, warns a study by the Co-op Insurance Society. The study was released within days of a UN report with similar warnings that said that bio fuels are more effective when used for heat and power, rather than in transport.

Biofuels are non-fossil fuels made from vegetable matter that burns and are seen as a potential solution to climate change because they it reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

The study assumes significance as countries seek to reduce their dependence on oil and petroleum products in a bid to contain environmental damage on the one hand and reduce their dependence on the rising prices of oil.

The Co-op report claims there is a future for biofuels, but current targets for growing so much fuel could have unintended consequences. The report says that around nine per cent of the world''s agricultural land may be needed to replace just 10 per cent of the world''s transport fuels.

This means the production of biofuels could lead to a decrease in land available for food production in countries where famine already exists.

Concerned over the impact of a mass switch over to switch agricultural land from food production to bio fuel cultivation, various warnings have been sounded over its radical effects on agriculture and consequences for food prices.

Environmentalists have also warned of the adverse consequences of large-scale felling of rainforests to plant crops to grow biofuels.

A BBC report quotes Professor Dieter Helm, a senior advisor to the British government as saying, "The sort of targets being set for biofuels will have quite radical effects on agriculture and therefore will have very substantial consequences for food prices and agriculture more generally."

"People are felling rainforests to plant crops to grow energy fuels, bio fuels. Think of the energy involved in felling those rainforests. Think about the damage to the climate being done by the loss of those trees. Think about the ploughing and the cultivation of fields.

"Think about the transport of those fuels, and you start to realise the carbon imprints are about much more than simply what happens to grow in a particular field at a particular point in time. Think about the transport of those fuels, and you start to realise the carbon imprints are about much more than simply what happens to grow in a particular field at a particular point in time."