Charity casts further doubt on biofuels
The biofuels debate was stepped up another notch today as the 'anti agro-fuels' charity Grain launched an attack on plans to tackle climate change with plant-based petrol.
The charity claims to have evidence that both biofuels companies and governments are putting pressure on indigenous peasant communities in developing countires to vacate areas staked out for growing jatropha. A spokesman for the charity said: "The numbers involved are mind-boggling. The Indian government is talking of planting 14 million hectares of land with jatropha."
"The Inter-American Development Bank says that Brazil has 120 million hectares that could be cultivated with agrofuel crops; and an agrofuel lobby is speaking of 379 million hectares being available in 15 African countries. We are talking about expropriation on an unprecedented scale."
