Worsening Amazon deforestation embarrasses Brazil's govt

Yann Walter, Yahoo News 3 Jun 08;

Alarming new figures showing worsening deforestation in the Amazon have embarrassed Brazil's government, which is accused of making concessions to the powerful food producer lobby.

Brazil's National Space Research Institute, which uses satellites to calculate how much of the vast rainforest has been destroyed, this week announced that another 1,132 square kilometers (437 square miles) had been cut or burned down, based on April imagery.

That was a big increase over the deforestation recorded in March, when the institute noted 146 square kilometers had gone -- although heavy cloud cover that month prevented satellites from getting pictures of three quarters of the Amazon.

In April, half the forest was cloaked from the lenses in orbit.

A Greenpeace representative in Brazil, Sergio Leitao, told AFP that the April data were "extremely worrying."

WWF, another environmental protection group, said in a statement it was "very concerned" about the latest figures and urged Brazil to reinforce control mechanisms for the forest.

Brazil's new environment minister, Carlos Minc, acknowledged that "the deforestation this year will be greater than that of last year."

He blamed high world prices for soya and beef -- two major Brazilian exports -- for the increased clearing of the Amazon by farmers.

WWF agreed, saying "the restart of deforestation shows that market needs are taking over from environmental issues and that environmental regulations are insufficient."

But Greenpeace and other environmental protection groups also accuse the government of having simply caved in to big and powerful agricultural concerns, such as those owned by a soya baron, Blairo Maggi.

Maggi is also governor of Mato Grosso state, which contains a large chunk of devastated Amazon forest.

Minc's respected predecessor, Marina Silva, resigned unexpectedly last month after losing a string of battles within the government against ministers wanting to develop the Amazon, egged on by the powerful agro-business lobby.

According to the space research institute, 794 square kilometers of forest in Mato Grasso disappeared last month, meaning more than two-thirds of the confirmed deforestation occurred in that territory.

The institute's figures show 11,200 square kilometers of Amazon forest were destroyed last year -- an area nearly equivalent to nearly half the size of Sicily.

Experts estimate 2008's total will be close to 20,000 square kilometers.

In the past two decades, 700,000 square kilometers of the four million square kilometers that make up the forest have been razed, which corresponds to an area the size of a football field disappearing every 10 seconds.

Brazil has been stung by international criticism of its flagging green credentials and by suggestions that the preservation of the Amazon should be taken away from it.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has stressed that "the Amazon belongs to the Brazilian people" -- but also announced a new series of conservation laws will be unveiled in coming days.

Minc, whose past active record as environmental secretary for the state of Rio de Janeiro earned Greenpeace approval, has declared he would do all he could to battle against those encroaching on the forest.

"Cattle-raising is responsible for more than 80 percent of the deforestation," he stated in a media conference late Monday.

Illegal ranches will be seized, he warned, and a green belt would be created to delimit the zone up to which pastures could be cleared.

There is much skepticism over what progress the measures will bring.

"The government has to learn to balance economic development and environmental protection, otherwise the Amazon will disappear," Leitao warned.

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EU court upholds law criminalising ship pollution

Business Times 4 Jun 08;

(LUXEMBOURG) The European Union's (EU) highest court has upheld an EU law that makes maritime pollution a crime, increasing pressure on shipping companies to control waste and avoid spills and other accidents.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg yesterday rejected arguments by the shipping groups that the EU legislation is invalid in light of international law covering use of the sea.

The EU law on 'ship-source pollution which provides for penalties in the event, in particular, of accidental discharges remains valid', a 13-judge panel of the court ruled. Shipping companies face a greater risk of being held criminally liable for polluting under the EU rule, even for accidents caused by foul weather, according to industry groups.

The EU law was introduced partly in response to oil spills caused by the sinking of tankers off Spain's northwest coast in 2002 and France's Atlantic coast in 1999. Groups such as Intertanko, representing about 80 per cent of the world's tanker fleet, and Lloyd's Register Group had asked the court to review the 2005 legislation. They told the court at a hearing in September that the law would be a 'recipe for chaos' because it creates a lower liability threshold.

The law requires the EU to implement 'effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties' for ship pollution. The policy is needed because international maritime standards are regularly ignored, the European Commission, the EU's executive agency, told the court last year.

The shipping groups argued that the law was trumped by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, known as Marpol, and by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The 27-nation EU isn't part of Marpol and the UN convention doesn't directly apply to individuals, so neither of the international laws can be used to supersede the EU rule, the court said\. \-- Bloomberg

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Singapore Poly students submit ideas to remake Punggol Town

Channel NewsAsia 3 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE: The Housing Development Board (HDB) is tapping on the minds of Singapore Polytechnic (SP) students, to remake Punggol Town. The call for ideas is also extended to the general public.

Gabriel Seah, a landscape and architecture student from SP, said: "The first thing that came to my mind will be wetlands. As we all know, the discharge of storm water into the river, or even into the sea is unfiltered. So before all these things get into the sea, I hope we can create a wetland, and filter off all these substrates and nutrients."

Lin Xiong, an architecture student from SP said: "I like the idea of a multi-storey car park, where they turn its roof into a 'green' roof – (creating) a recreational space for the neighbourhood to bond together."

The students' suggestions fall under HDB's 'Call for Ideas' competition which aims to incorporate the wishes of Punggol residents.

As Punggol is dubbed the 'Waterfront Town of the 21st century', expectations for the developments are high. And so far, the HDB has been encouraged by what it has heard.

Chong Fook Loong, Deputy Director, HDB, said: "I think they're good. The students don't have a group-think mentality. They think quite differently from each other. Based on the patterns that are emerging, I think the ideas are refreshing. I think there are good ideas there that we can make use of later."

The public can also submit their ideas by sending them to the HDB website at www.hdb.gov.sg.

The competition closes on June 30. Those whose ideas are in the top 10 will each win S$1,000. - CNA/vm

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Best of our wild blogs: 4 Jun 08

Pasir Ris Bliss
the shores are full of stars and other critters on the wildfilms blog

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Shark's fins menu: Why the double standards?

Ace Kindred Cheong, Straits Times Forum 4 Jun 08;

WHAT Resort World Sentosa has done to promote goodwill and highlight its commitment to the environment is very heartening, 'No shark's fin served here' (May 30).

I am a nature lover. I have attended seminars on the environment and learnt how sharks have been thrown back into the sea after having their fins cut. Why must there be such cruelty to sharks?

However, I was disappointed to read that shark's fins will be served to high-end rollers at the resort. Why the contradiction?


Some comments on the online version of this letter

#7 OrdinaryPeople- "Just imagine if the sharks are spared and the seas are full of sharks eating up all the fishes where could we get our fishes? Let's be practical. Stike a balance. Follow the laws of mother nature."

Top predators are essential in all ecosystems - so it is more likely that the opposite of what you have stated is true. Removing top predators from an ecosystem can have severe consequences that affects lower trophic levels. Just as an example, in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, catch rates of Rhinoptera cownose rays have increased at 9% per year as large sharks have declined due to overfishing of sharks. Exploding ray populations (now estimated to exceed 40 million individuals) are quickly eliminating bay Argopecten scallop populations.

Sharks also help to 'remove' harmful mercury and other heavy metals (ocean contaminants contributed by humans, of course) from lower trophic levels by being top predators.
Pregnant women should not be eating shark. For anyone interested in health warnings (issued by US and Aussie govt agencies) on the consumption of shark, check out the following links: (especially if you are planning on a Chinese wedding banquet with shark's fin on the menu, AND planning to get pregnant soon).

US Environment Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/advice/

Australian State of Victoria government website
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/b...h?OpenDocument


Another interesting point that many consumers are not aware of, is that shark fins are usually BLEACHED to give them a desirable whitish colour. The methods include smoking with SULPHUR (!!) overnight or treatment with 3 % HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (!!) for about 30 minutes (you can read all about it at the official Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations website - http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/X3690E/x3690e1g.htm. )

So if rich people want to feast on poisonous, tetratogenic and carcinogenic shark fins, I say, let them.
Posted by: ChaoCheeWai at Wed Jun 04 12:24:38 SGT 2008
I'm a chinese S'porean. I am sick of S'poreans accusing others (particularly foreigners or those who have gone overseas) of practicing imperialism by telling S'poreans not to eat sharkfins. Sharks don't observe national borders, killing one means the oceans have one less shark. i scuba dive, there are places named "Bull Run", "Shark Bay" that you don't see sharks anymore. Killing sharks has a global impact just like global warming and pollution, when the effects start to affect you, I'm afraid there's no where to run to, it affects every corner of the Earth.
Posted by: wahlau123 at Wed Jun 04 11:48:39 SGT 2008
We can eat whale meat. Not to worry. If the japs and norwegians can get away it, am sure we can too. There is hardly any fuss over killing of whales if the actions come from any nation that belongs to the west or one that they want to ally with.
Posted by: OrdinaryPeople at Wed Jun 04 11:41:18 SGT 2008
High rollers or low rollers apart shark's fins manue should be served. Just imagine if the sharks are spared and the seas are full of sharks eating up all the fishes where could we get our fishes?

Let's be practical. Stike a balance. Follow the laws of mother nature.
Posted by: steamroller at Wed Jun 04 10:52:24 SGT 2008
RWS is a business and cannot afford to offend its high rollers. It's important to remember that it didn't have to take shark fins off its menus - after all, it's not illegal to serve it. Rather than criticise companies for not going all the way, let's cheer them for at least making the effort - even if it's not perfect.
Posted by: chrispstan at Wed Jun 04 09:14:26 SGT 2008

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Next food crisis: Fish shortage

Michael Richardson, for the Straits Times 4 Jun 08;

THE United Nations is holding a summit in Rome this week to find solutions to the global food crisis. The focus is on the grain shortages and high prices that have recently caused mass protests and political instability in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Improvements in food production, particularly in poor countries, are urgently needed. Research and development in agriculture has long been neglected.

But there is another looming food crisis - this one at sea, as too many fishing boats chase too few fish. It has not yet attracted much attention from Asian governments and policymakers. But it will in future, as the shortage of fish intensifies and prices rise.

Asia has the world's largest fishing fleet, with 42 per cent of registered tonnage. Major Asian fishing powers include China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says that these vessels, often subsidised by governments, have twice the capacity needed to extract what the oceans can sustainably produce. The result is 'a vicious circle: as catches per vessel fall, profits plummet, and fishers overfish to maintain supplies, causing depletion of stocks and endangering long-term availability'.

This is a global crisis but its implications for Asia are particularly serious. Fish is a staple food in the region and a major source of protein. The ADB predicts that demand for fish in Asia will reach about 69 million tonnes by 2010 and account for 60 per cent of global fish demand, compared to 53 per cent in 1990.

Although Japan will remain the biggest fish consumer on a per capita basis, China will take by far the largest amount of fish by 2010 - an estimated 28 million tonnes. Can wild fisheries and aqua-

culture meet the demand from Asia and the rest of the globe?

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has issued a grim snapshot of the state of world fisheries. It warned of pressures on stocks, adding that this was unsustainable. It said 52 per cent of world fish stocks were fully exploited, compared with 47 per cent in 2002, while nearly 25 per cent were over-exploited. Seven of the top 10 marine fish species were already stretched to their limits or in decline.

The UN agency forecast that world consumption of fish may rise by more than 25 per cent to 179 million tonnes by 2015, underscoring the urgent need to rebuild depleted wild fish stocks while raising coastal farm fish production. Yet the latter, now widely practised in Asia, is problematic because it can cause environmental damage.

Over the past few decades, coastal aquaculture in Asia, especially shrimp farming, has led to the destruction of mangrove forests, which are vital for filtering nutrients, cleansing water and protecting coastlines from floods and storms.

In the Philippines, for example, it has been estimated that as much as 65 per cent of its original 450,000ha of mangroves have been converted to other uses, chiefly brackish water fish ponds.

Effluent from aquaculture ponds and pens is frequently released, polluting surrounding waterways. The effluent includes fertiliser, undigested feed and biological waste from the fish. Farmed fish that escape into the wild can threaten native species by acting as predators, competing for food, or inter-breeding and changing the genetic pools of wild organisms.

Increasing demand for animal feed with high fish-protein content is also contributing to pressure on wild stocks. Meanwhile, imposing quotas so that over-fished areas can recover is unpopular and difficult to enforce.

Can Asia meet future fish demand? The ADB says that depends on strong action being taken to improve wild fisheries resource management, develop aquaculture in a responsible way and better protect the environment. Otherwise, the region could face a serious shortage of fish.

One promising avenue would be to reduce waste. Wild-fishing operations capture, kill and discard a massive quantity of by-catch - fish that are the wrong size, commercially unattractive or otherwise undesirable. The boats concentrate on filling their freezers with only the most profitable fish.

The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC has calculated that more than 20 million tonnes of fish and other marine organisms are discarded each year. This is the equivalent of nearly 20 per cent of the annual amount of fish eaten in the world. Asia can no longer afford waste on this scale.

The writer is a security and energy specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Singapore named 'Best Seaport in Asean'

Business Times 4 Jun 08;

THE Port of Singapore has received yet another accolade - this time the inaugural 'Best Seaport in Asean' award at the Frost & Sullivan Asean Transportation and Logistics Awards last night. 'We are very thankful to the maritime community for reaffirming Singapore as its preferred port of call.

This award is an endorsement of our efforts to continuously enhance our port services. We will continue to work closely with our maritime partners to ensure that Singapore remains a leading global transhipment hub port offering quality infrastructure, excellent services and a pro-business environment,' said MPA director of corporate services Richard Tan, who received the award on behalf of the Maritime Port Authority.

Global growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan's Asean Transportation and Logistics Awards is an annual event held to recognise outstanding performance by companies in the transportation and logistics industry in South- east Asia and is now into its third year. All recipients are evaluated based on their customers' satisfaction level. The selection process involves in-depth analysis and interviews with customers of the shortlisted companies. The Port of Singapore continues to record good performance and strong growth this year. Shipping tonnage of vessel arrivals in April went up by 18.8 per cent compared with the same period last year to reach 140.2 million gross tons.

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Secondary schools harness solar power to drive mini race cars

Channel NewsAsia 3 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE: Secondary school students battled it out on the race track on Tuesday. But it was a small track because it was for their mini cars, which had been designed to run on solar power.

The 10th National Junior Solar Sprint Competition was organised by Singapore Polytechnic's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

The aim was to promote the importance of renewable energy, and the sun was the shining star at the event.

While some cars zipped off from the starting line, others took their time to make their way down the 40-metre track or simply refused to budge.

However, being fast was not enough to win the race. The cars also had to navigate ramps and corners to get to the finish line.

177 students from 59 secondary schools took part in the event.

Saint Andrew's Secondary School took the fastest car title with a time of 10.6 seconds. - CNA/vm

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NTUC FairPrice spends over S$10,000 a month on green campaign

Channel NewsAsia 3 Jun 08;

SINGAPORE: NTUC FairPrice spends more than S$10,000 a month in rebates for shoppers who bring their own bags.

Its ‘Bring Your Own Bag’ campaign gives out 10 cents for every S$10 spent.

Employees at FairPrice are also given cloth bags to reduce the use of plastic bags. And to cut down on the use of electricity, air-conditioning is turned off before 6pm.

Around the office, they take the initiative by using less paper and printing on both sides. Bins are also strategically placed to make it more convenient for employees to recycle.

Gerry Lee, General Manager, NTUC FairPrice, said: "They are showing an example, they are walking the talk. We have to show it to our consumers and also to our employees at large, that we are as a manager and as a secretary leading by example." - CNA/vm

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CNG-powered cars hitting sales high

Rising pump prices, Malaysian ban on petrol sales to foreign cars fuel increase
Samuel Ee, Business Times 4 Jun 08;

SALES of cars that can run on compressed natural gas (CNG) are powering ahead on the back of soaring petrol prices, with talk of a Malaysian ban on petrol sales to drivers of foreign-registered cars fuelling even more interest in them.

In the first four months of this year, 290 CNG cars - so-called because they can run on petrol or gas - were registered, according to the Land Transport Authority. In contrast, only 34 CNG cars were registered in the whole of 2007.

There are only two OEM (original equipment manufacturer) models on the market here - the Mercedes-Benz E200 NGT (Natural Gas Technology) and the 1.6-litre Chevrolet Optra CNG variant. The majority of CNG vehicles on the road here are petrol engine cars retrofitted with kits so they can also run on gas.

A CNG conversion can cost from $3,400 to as much as $4,500, depending on the size of the gas tank to be installed. Despite the conversion cost, however, a CNG car can have a lower list price because of the green vehicle rebate for such cars, which is currently set at 40 per cent of OMV (open market value).

For example, a conventional Honda Stream MPV at parallel importer VinCar costs about $72,000, including COE. After a CNG conversion, a Stream costs about $69,000, or $3,000 less. This is after a conversion fee of $4,000 but with a green rebate of $7,000 (40 per cent of an average OMV of $17,500).

Not surprisingly, VinCar is selling about 20 CNG cars a month. 'Some of the more popular models are the Toyota Estima, RAV4, Vanguard, Axio and Wish, as well as the Honda Stream,' says VinCar's Vincent Tan. 'Our customers say they are attracted by the green rebate and lower fuel consumption.'

Besides a litre of gas costing less than half as much as the lowest grade of petrol, CNG has a higher octane rating than petrol, meaning CNG vehicles are more efficient.

Nik Ang of 8th Gear agrees. The service agent for conversion specialist C Melchers says demand for retrofits picked up this year when two CNG refuelling stations at Mandai and Jalan Buroh opened. Before that, there was only one CNG refuelling station - and it was on Jurong Island.

C Melchers is one of four companies here offering CNG conversions. And Mr Ang says: 'After Malaysia announced a fuel ban on Singapore-registered cars, we got even more enquiries.'

According to him, there is more to CNG than just cost savings. 'CNG is eco-friendly because it reduces exhaust emissions, and that is more important than the price,' he says.

CNG-powered vehicles emit 70 per cent less carbon monoxide than an equivalent petrol-powered vehicle, while carbon dioxide emissions are up to 20 per cent lower.

The high price of petrol has also seen an increase in sales of petrol-electric hybrid cars, though the jump in registrations is not as sharp as that of CNG cars.

In the first four months of 2008, registrations of the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid totalled 289 units, compared with 678 units for the whole of 2007.

But overall, the number of alternative fuel vehicles is still small compared with conventional passenger cars. From January to April this year, a total of 33,428 cars were registered in Singapore.

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Out of the frying pan, into the diesel engines

As fuel prices soar, more firms save money by using bio-diesel made from waste cooking oil
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 4 Jun 08;

TO COPE with rising fuel prices, some companies are turning to waste cooking oil from restaurants to power their diesel vehicles and machinery.

About 500,000 litres of this bio-diesel courses through engines and industrial equipment here every month, enough to fill half an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Retailers said that demand had skyrocketed in the past year largely because the vegetable-based fuel is up to 20 per cent cheaper than petroleum-based diesel.

Diesel is now going for about $1.80 a litre.

Alpha Synovate, which produces about 20,000 litres of bio-diesel each month, collects the used, dark yellow cooking oil from restaurants across Singapore.

The oil then goes into stainless steel reactors and, with a little chemistry, about 80 per cent of it is converted into bio-diesel seven hours later.

Only vehicles powered by diesel engines, such as most vans, trucks, buses and a few diesel-powered cars here, can run on this fuel.

Vegetable oil is not flammable enough to work in petrol engines, which are spark-ignited. In diesel engines, however, air is compressed to the point where the fuel self-ignites.

Although the fuel cannot be used by all vehicles here, Alpha Synovate's chief executive Allan Lim has no shortage of customers, among whom are transport companies and private owners of diesel vehicles. He said that demand for bio-diesel had gone up with the joint rise in petrol and diesel prices.

Crude oil prices hit a record US$135 (S$183) a barrel two weeks ago, pushing pump prices up for the fifth time since March. The price of diesel shot up even more sharply than that of petrol, hitting $1.83 per litre at the pumps.

Bio-diesel, once popular with only a handful of committed environmentalists, has therefore won new fans among those looking to cushion themselves against rising transport costs.

Mr Lim said that owners of petrol-engine vehicles who want to use this biofuel have to convert their vehicles to diesel-engine ones, which is an expensive exercise.

The other snag is the relatively high taxes on diesel cars, which is why there are few such cars here.

Alpha Synovate plans to increase production to 200,000 litres by the end of the year to meet the increasing demand. The business is not profitable yet, but Mr Lim has high hopes for the future.

Already, the number of customers filling up at Alpha Synovate's mobile station in Simei has tripled in the last two years.

The other cooking oil recycler here, Biofuel Research, saw demand for its product go from nothing to 500,000 litres in the same amount of time.

Said its owner Kom Mam Sun: 'Industrial and transport companies can use lots of diesel. They can save up to $25,000 a month. When prices of oil went up, so did our business.'

Industry watchers think demand may soon outstrip supply. Singapore Environment Council chief Howard Shaw agreed, saying that it was unlikely that waste oil conversion would happen on a massive scale because 'there is a limited supply of waste cooking oil'.

Already, Biofuel Research is turning away at least two transport companies a week because it cannot collect enough waste oil.

The veggie-power movement is global. In Britain, several thousand people are thought to be running their cars on such fuel, made in their own backyards. In the United States, waste oil has become popular with thieves, who are trading it in for cash.

Meanwhile, those using this recycled fuel here are only too happy to count their savings. Bedok Transport, which operates a fleet of 70 buses and runs half of them on bio-diesel, saves about $700 monthly.

Its owner, Mr Lionel Lim, 28, said: 'It works the same as regular diesel and there is less soot when the buses start up. The only drawback is that it smells strange, like fried chicken.'

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Money - and patience - needed for second-generation biofuels

Anne Chaon, Yahoo News 4 Jun 08;

Next-generation biofuels that are greener than present crop-based fuels are in the works, but it will take many years, and massive financial support, before they reach the pump, experts say.

Such caveats amount to unfortunate news for the biofuel industry as it seeks to battle its way out of a storm.

The surging price of petrol and diesel from fossil fuels has prompted farmers, notably in the United States and Brazil, to grow crops such as corn, soy, colza and sugar cane which are then distilled into the petrol substitute ethanol.

Partly in response to this agricultural switch from food to fuel, the price of dietary staples has blasted skyward this year, worsening hunger among the very poor and in half a dozen vulnerable countries stoking political instability.

Scientists are working hard to develop second-generation biofuels that would mainly use non-food cellulose materials, such as straw, wood and timber chips, which would be supplemented by easy-to-grow fibrous plants.

Two techniques -- one biological, the other a combination of heat and chemicals -- are being used to render this feedstock into biofuels, respectively ethanol or a diesel and kerosene substitute called BTL (Biomass to Liquids).

But the public will have to wait until 2015 for ethanol and 202O for BTL, said Xavier Montagne, deputy scientifique director at the French Institute for Oil (IFP).

Claude Roy, an interministerial official who is coordinating France's efforts in biofuels, said "the real outcome lies in the battle of the yields," a reference to the amount of fuel that is harvested compared to the energy used to produce it.

"At present, the two techniques have low energy yields. We have to double present yields to make them viable. Tripling them would be ideal," said Roy.

Such improvements can only come through research and development and economies of scale in manufacturing -- and those in turn can only come through massive investment.

For instance, the German firm Choren Industries is to build a biofuel refinery with a 200,000-tonne capacity. The cost is a billion euros (1.55 billion dollars), compared with just 40 million euros (62 million dollars) for a similar facility handling rapeseed, also called colza.

Such investments are fine -- just so long as oil prices hold up.

In many minds are memories of a false dawn 30 years ago. Investment in renewable energies surged in the late 1970s but was wrecked when, a few years later, the price of crude plummeted and oil climbed back into the saddle.

Even if next-generation biofuels will have big advantages over the present generation in terms of energy yield and non-food sources, question marks will remain.

"We will still have to use land to grow the feedstock for the biofuels, and this means there could be competition with farmland," said Roy.

Using virgin land to grow biofuels can raise big environmental concerns, and not just in the impact on biodiversity, said Bal.

One argument made for biofuels is that they contribute less carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere than oil, gas and coal, which have been dug out of the ground.

But this equation changes if the soil being used to grow crops is virgin.

"Using prairie land, or worse, destroying a forest, releases considerable quantities of CO2 that have been stored in the soil and the trees, and the outcome could be catastrophic," said Bal.

Cautioned Roy: "Even if we find the Holy Grail, biofuels will not replace oil. At best, they will be part of the range of options to diversify energy supplies."

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

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