Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 10/2008

Another Inconvenient Truth: How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change

June 2008

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

The current biofuel policies of rich countries are neither a solution to the climate crisis nor the oil crisis, and instead are contributing to a third: the food crisis. In poor countries, biofuels may offer some genuine development opportunities, but the potential economic, social, and environmental costs are severe, and decision makers should proceed with caution.