Renewables could cut power generation health impact by 80 percent

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, November 19, 2019

Emissions from power generation account for around 40 percent of all global
carbon pollution, and demand for energy is predicted to rise globally for years
to come (AFP Photo/Patrick Pleul)

Paris (AFP) - Switching to renewables could cut the health impacts of air pollution from power generation as much as 80 percent by mid-century, experts said Tuesday.

Scientists and environmental groups have long advocated a switch to low-carbon power to cap the rise in global temperature to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit), as stipulated in the Paris climate treaty.

Despite several nations committing to "net-zero" emissions by 2050, few have so far explained precisely how they plan to get there.

Emissions from power generation account for around 40 percent of all energy-related carbon pollution, and demand for energy is predicted to rise globally for years to come.

Despite an overwhelming scientific consensus on the need to slash emissions, relatively little attention has been paid to the human health impacts of climate action.

A team of experts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) used climate and energy efficiency models to sketch out three scenarios for decarbonising the power sector by 2050.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, they then combined their calculations with human health indexes and analyses of the emission levels throughout a power unit's lifespan.

They found that a scenario where the majority of energy is derived from solar and wind power could cut adverse health effects from electricity production by 80 percent compared with our current fossil-heavy economies.

"The main winner of decarbonisation is human health," said lead author Gunnar Luderer.

"That's a very substantial benefit, if climate change policies can be key contributors to reducing human health impacts," he told AFP.

The World Health Organization estimates 4.2 million people die prematurely each 

year due to air pollution (AFP Photo/Sajjad HUSSAIN)

The World Health Organization estimates 4.2 million people die prematurely each year due to air pollution, much of which comes from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.

The PIK models predicted current energy trends would see six million years of life lost globally to air pollution by 2050. If the next three decades are dominated by renewables, that figure drops to about one million.

"This is mainly due to a reduction of air pollution from combusting fuels," Luderer said.

He said all decarbonisation pathways the team studied showed significant health benefits, but the renewables-led approach showed by far the biggest health upside.

Biofuel vs solar

The study also looked at the environmental and ecological impact of green energy generation heading towards mid-century.

While bioenergy -- the harvesting and burning of CO2-absorbing crops for electricity -- has the potential to be low-emission, the team found such schemes would have significant environmental consequences.

In fact, measured per kilowatt-hour, the team found that bioenergy required roughly 100 times the amount of land needed to harvest the same energy from solar panels.

"Land is a finite resource for our planet," said Alexander Popp, head of land use management at PIK.

"Given the growing world population with a hunger for both electricity and for food, pressures on the land and food systems will increase, too."

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August released a landmark assessment of how land can both ease and contribute to the climate emergency.

It warned of looming tough choices, and a radical reduction in pastureland for livestock if the more ambitious 1.5-C Paris temperature benchmark is to be met.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“… 4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”

“Afraid of Love” + “What’s Wrong Today”, Laguna Hills, California, US(2), Dec 9, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

• Stagnation of the current US Politics: Compassioned (US) leaders will arise in the future
• Shortage of fresh/drinking water: Invention to make salt from salt water magnetic and remove it with water desalination process in high volumes
• Pollution on Earth: 1 - Stop killing the environment! / 2 - The rise of temperature on Earth is “temporary” and is part of the "regular" Watercycle.
• Replacement of current fossil energy source: Use of magnetics based (small/big) engines to produces electricity / free energy
• Plastic pollution in the oceans: Invention to remove the plastics gradually from the oceans

Dutch inventors roll out river plastic clean-up barge
Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Dead fish to power Norwegian cruise liners

Yahoo – AFP, November 26, 2018

Leftover dead fish from Norway's large fishing industry will be mixed with other
organic waste to make a liquified biogas to be used instead of heavy fuel oil, said
Hurtigruten, which runs cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other locations.

Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten plans to use dead fish to power some of its ships, it said on Monday, as it seeks to reduce its pollution and climate change impact.

Leftover dead fish from Norway's large fishing industry will be mixed with other organic waste to make a liquified biogas to be used instead of heavy fuel oil, said Hurtigruten, which runs cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other locations.

"What others see as a problem, we see as a resource and a solution," the company's chief executive Daniel Skjeldam said.

"By introducing biogas as fuel for cruise ships, Hurtigruten will be the first cruise company to power ships with fossil-free fuel," he added.

The first biogas ship could be ready as soon as the end of next year, according to spokesman Rune Thomas Ege.

The company aims to have six of its 17 ships capable of using a combination of biogas, batteries and liquified natural gas, the cleanest of fossil fuels, by 2021.

Norway, which already has buses that run on biogas, has large fishing and forestry industries which produce vast amounts of organic waste.

The announcement comes as the cruise sector faces heavy criticism for its climate footprint and its impact on air quality.

A large cruise ship powered by highly-polluting heavy fuel oil emits almost as many fine particles daily as one million cars, according to German environmental group Nabu.

On Monday, a French court fined cruise company P&O and its US captain 100,000 euros ($114,000) for knowingly using fuel with excessive sulphur levels, the first such ruling in France.

Norway has a "zero emission" target for cruise ships and ferries navigating its fjords listed as world heritage sites by UNESCO by 2026 at the latest.

Hurtigruten, which aims to become carbon neutral by 2050, has ordered three hybrid battery/diesel vessels which the company said will be "the first cruise ships in the world that will be able to operate completely emission free for periods of time".

The spokesman said that is "and something deemed almost impossible just a few years back".

The first of those three ships should enter into service in May 2019.

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KLM-backed bio-kerosene plant may open in the Netherlands

DutchNews, September 18, 2018 

Aviation is a major source of carbon-dioxide emissions. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The Netherlands is on the verge of getting its first factory to produce bio-kerosene, an alternative fuel to tradition kerosene and made out of biomass, the AD said on Tuesday. 

A location for the plant has not yet been confirmed but Groningen is on the shortlist, the paper said. 

The plans have been confirmed by Maarten van Dijk, director of SkyNRG, which will build the factory. ‘We are in the last phase of selecting the location and suppliers. I think that we will be able to reveal more at the end of this year or beginning of the next,’ he told the paper. 

Rotterdam and Amsterdam are being considered as alternative locations. 

Airline KLM is a important shareholder in SkyNRG and has also confirmed that plans for the factory are being made. The airline currently imports bio-kerosine from Los Angeles and it uses the fuel mainly on its fights to the American east coast. 

The AD says there are no other bio-kerosines plants in north-west Europe and that the investment will create a large number of jobs. 

Pollution 

Passenger air traffic is currently responsible for between 2% and 3% of global carbon-dioxide emissions, but in the Netherlands, the figure is 7%, the AD said. 

Bio-kerosine is made from leftovers from the timber and agricultural industries, as well as the food processing industry. Wageningen University said earlier this year that bio-kerosene is a potentially important option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector. 

However, the price is two to three times that of ordinary kerosene and ‘the direct and indirect effects… on the aviation sector and the Dutch economy as a whole depend to a large extent on how the additional costs of biokerosene will be funded,’ University researchers said.

Dutch scientists call crop-based biofuels a ‘false solution’

DutchNews, December 5, 2017

A group of 177 scientists in the Netherlands have written an open letter to economic affairs minister Erik Wiebes urging him to try to stop biofuels made from food crops being included in the EU’s sustainable development agenda. 

The use of crop-based biofuels is a ‘false solution’ to climate problems, the scientists say, adding that: ‘we urgently implore you to acknowledge that blending food crops into fuel causes severe damage to climate, nature and communities.’ 

They point out that research carried out for the European Commission shows the mixture leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions and that biodiesel from food crops emits on average 1.8 times as much carbon dioxide as fossil fuels. This increases to three times more in the case of biodiesel made from palm oil. 

‘Moreover, European policy leads to an increased demand for vegetable oils from food crops and therefore also to increasing demand for agricultural soil for these crops,’ they say. ‘To meet this demand, vulnerable ecosystems like tropical forests, wetlands and grasslands are being converted into vast monocultures. 

‘This leads to biodiversity losses and increased vulnerability to droughts, floods, land degradation, surface water pollution, blurring of coastal waters and degradation of coral reefs, and also contributes to local climate extremes.’ 

Multinationals

Using crops for fuel is also forcing up food prices and pressuring local food production as small farmers become dependent on multinationals. 

The scientists come from across all Dutch universities, including Wageningen University which focuses on agriculture. 

The European parliament voted last month to include sustainable biofuels in new targets for sustainable energy and ministers will discuss the issue at their summit later this month.

'Reverse photosynthesis' could change fuel production

Researchers in Denmark have discovered that a certain enzyme causes sunlight to break down the chemical bonds in plants. The finding could improve industrial processes such as the production of biofuels.

Deutsche Welle, 17 April 2016

Photosynthesis is a process in which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy that can be later released as fuel. But now, a group of scientists from the University of Copenhagen have found that adding an enzyme called monooxygenase to the process causes sunlight to break down plant material instead of helping create it. They refer to this phenomenon as "reverse photosynthesis."

The discovery could be applied to processes that require the breakdown of chemical bonds, such as the production of bioethanol, which is made from biomass via a fermentation process.

In a press release, Professor Claus Felby from the Plant Science Centre at the University of Copenhagen, the head of the study, called the discovery a "game changer" that could transform the production of fuels and chemicals, increasing efficiency and decreasing pollution.

Great usage potential

The first step to producing bioethanol is breaking down cellulose, an organic material that forms the walls in plant cells. This is exactly what happens when monooxygenase is added to the photosynthesis process.

Ethanol is widely used as engine fuel

"Basically, we have found a new way of using solar energy - going directly from sunlight to chemistry," Felby told DW. "This opens up a lot of possibilities."

The scientists' lab tests indicated that applying this process resulted in much faster production of ethanol and at lower temperatures. The duration of some of the chemical reactions was reduced from hours to minutes when sunlight was involved.

Ethanol has a multitude of uses in the modern world, mostly as engine fuel, but also as an ingredient in medical and personal care products.

The team also found that the same process can be applied to oxidizing methane. This produces methanol, a key ingredient in the manufacture of different chemicals.

"Methanol currently requires very large and expensive steel units to produce," explained Felby. "If our method was applied to this process, you would only need small, simple production units, something similar to a greenhouse."

Need to test large-scale application

While the process has proven effective in a lab environment, the scientists need to do further research to determine how it would work in real life.

"We are now working on exploring this," David Cannella, a co-author of the study, told DW. "You need to make sure that sunlight penetrates the organic material that you are converting, and we still need to work out how to do this."

Cannella feels optimistic about the commercial applicability of the process, as does Felby.

"We have to determine the exact amount of light needed for the process and how and when to apply it," said Felby. "But that's just a question of engineering."

He added that going directly from sunlight to chemical energy results in very little energy loss: "It's a near-perfect process."

Related Article:

Plants 'seen doing quantum physics'

Hainan Airlines marks China's first passenger flight with biofuel

Want ChinaTimes, Xinhua 2015-03-22

The Boeing 737 is loaded with biofuel before the flight from Shanghai Hongqiao
International Airport, March 21. (Photo/Xinhua)

Hainan Airlines announced on Saturday it has completed China's first passenger flight with sustainable biofuel, a milestone for the country's commercial aviation industry.

The flight, which carried more than 100 passengers from Shanghai to Beijing in a Boeing 737, used biofuel made by Sinopec from waste cooking oil collected from restaurants in China.

The airplane's two engines were powered by the fuel blended of approximately half biofuel and half traditional jet fuel, the company said.

"We are honored to see our flight with safe and effective biofuel," said Pu Ming, vice president of Hainan Airlines, also the flight's pilot.

Boeing has been collaborating with Chinese airlines to develop aviation biofuel industry. In 2011, Air China conducted China's first test flight with aviation biofuel in a Boeing 747.

UK's first 'poo bus' goes into regular service

Bio-Bus fuelled by human and household waste, which first ran between Bristol and Bath, will operate 15-mile route four days a week

The Guardian, Press Association, Sunday 15 March 2015

Bristol’s Bio Bus runs on faeces and household waste. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Britain’s first “poo bus”, which runs on human and household waste, goes into regular service later this month.

Powered by biomethane gas, the Bio-Bus will use waste from more than 32,000 households along its 15-mile route.

Operated by First West of England, the bus will fill up at a site in Avonmouth, Bristol, where sewage and inedible food waste is turned into biomethane gas.

The bus, which can seat up to 40 people, was unveiled last autumn. First is showing the bus in Bristol on Tuesday before it starts operating four days a week from 25 March.

If the route is successful, First will consider introducing more “poo buses”. The managing director, James Freeman, said: “Since its original unveiling last year, the Bio-Bus has generated worldwide attention and so it’s our great privilege to bring it to the city.

“The Bio-Bus previously made an appearance running between Bath and Bristol airport at the end of last year, but it’s only actually been used once before in the centre of Bristol itself.

“The very fact that it’s running in the city should help to open up a serious debate about how buses are best fuelled, and what is good for the environment.”

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Biofuel from trash could create green jobs bonanza, says report

Advanced biofuels industry could spur hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe, says new report, but key European parliament vote next week could throw clean fuel ambitions into disarray

The Guardian, Arthur Neslen, 17 February 2015

Biofuel from household and industrial waste, woody crops, agricultural residues
 or algae is seen as less environmentally damaging than first generation biofuels
 produced by growing crops such as rapeseed. Photograph: Shutterstock/Courtesy
of Avery Dennison

Creating biofuels from waste produced by industry, farms, and households could generate 36,000 jobs in the UK and save around 37m tonnes of oil use annually by 2030, according to a new report.

Across Europe, hundreds of thousands of new jobs could be created by using these ‘advanced biofuels’, which could replace 16% of the continent’s road transport fuel by the same year, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) study said. But the gains will not come without ambitious policy to promote advanced biofuels, it warned.

“Alternative fuels from wastes and residues offer real and substantial carbon savings, even when taking account of possible indirect emissions,” said Chris Malins who led the analysis for ICCT . “The resource is available, and the technology exists – the challenge now is for Europe to put a policy framework in place that allows rapid investment.”

However, a key vote in the European Parliament’s environment committee next week could stop this potential being realised, as a centre-right grouping of MEPs has signalled that it will oppose a biofuels reform package considered crucial to the fledgling industry.

The committee will vote next Tuesday on a compromise biofuels reform bill that would mandate a goal of advanced biofuels providing 1.25% of Europe’s transport fuel by 2020.

This advanced fuel could come from woody crops, agricultural residues, algae or household and industrial waste. It is seen as less environmentally damaging than first generation biofuels produced by growing crops such as rapeseed, which have been criticised for displacing food crops and raising commodity prices.

Malins said that a mandatory advanced biofuels goal was “absolutely crucial” to realising the sector’s potential, as it would bring market certainty and long-term signals for investors.

  

But sources at the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) told the Guardian that they were unlikely to back such a package. “We think it is unrealistically ambitious,” a source said. “We are not going to support the compromise proposal.”

The bill would also introduce criteria for assessing biofuels’ sustainability and set a 6% cap for the amount that first generation biofuel could contribute to the EU’s 2020 target of providing 10% of road transport fuel from low carbon sources.

Marko Janhunen, the vice-president of UPM Biorefining in Finland, said that parliamentary manoeuvring could risk the advanced sector’s potential for hi-tech job creation in rural areas.

“This is a critical moment for the advanced biofuels sector and this discussion is very frustrating,” he told the Guardian. “We want to see incentives and reasons to invest. We want to get rid of the regulatory uncertainty that has been surrounding the discussion.”

UPM recently opened a €175m renewable waste biorefinery that transforms residues from pulp into renewable diesel that can be used by cars – or potentially, one day, by planes. British Airways is one of several members of a Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels group that Janhunen also chairs.

“The EU has spent hundreds of millions in projects supporting the uptake of these technologies,” Janhunen added. “Now they are here, it is very important to set policies in place that enable them to be brought into the market.”

The current proposal has faced a tortuous journey and campaigners fear that even a narrow victory now will embolden east European states to finally bury it in the European Council.

“If the EPP votes against the compromise, there is a massive risk that the whole package could fall into a conciliation process, or even no conclusion at all,” said Nusa Urbancic, a clean energy programme manager at the Transport and Environment group. “This will mean continued negative impacts on deforestation and food prices, as well as leading the EU away from our climate objectives.”

The European ethanol industry association (ePURE) has thrown its weight behind the biofuels bill. Its secretary-general, Robert Wright, told the Guardian that “only a binding target will send a clear signal to investors that there will be a future market for advanced biofuels.”

But other industry figures were sceptical about the likelihood of meaningful regulation at the EU level, and about the ICCT’s analysis more generally.

“Studies like this have rosy assumptions that feed into rosy conclusions,” said Eric Sievers, the CEO of Ethanol Europe Renewables. “You don’t make a large capital investment in a regulatory regime that expires in 2020, so the potential and reality are at odds. Nothing prevents this stuff from being imported from the US or Brazil so the whole jobs argument goes down the tubes.”

In the absence of EU renewable targets for 2030, however, Malins said that the cleaner fuel process in Europe could still be continued with carbon intensity fuel standards similar to those in California, an extension of the bloc’s Fuel Quality Directive, or fiscal measures by European states.

Urbancic said that the US already had advanced biofuels targets which would likely deter its small industry from importing to the EU, while Brazil was likely to focus its industry on aviation.

For E. Java Village, a Solution in Bioethanol

Self-Sufficient: Farmers from Sumbermanjing Wetan village in Malang find freedom from higher subsidized fuel prices

Jakarta Globe, Dyah Ayu Pitaloka, Dec 09, 2014

Farmers from Sumbermanjing Wetan village in Malang, East Java, have
 devised their own method of producing bioethanol using corn and a secret
enzyme. (JG Photo/ Dyah Ayu Pitaloka)

Malang. Residents of Sumbermanjing Wetan village in Malang, East Java, seem unfazed by the recent price hike of subsidized fuel — unlike the rest of the country.

Their secret lies in an unassuming shed of no more than 15 square meters in size, with walls made of woven bamboo.

It is easy to see why people often mistaken the humble structure as a chicken coop, with the exception of a three-meter chimney sticking out of its roof. Surrounding the dilapidated structure are discarded corn cobs, stalks and silks, all of which completely carpet the ground.

For the last two years, people in the village have been experimenting in turning maize into ethanol. The scale of the production is small but substantial enough to make residents self-sufficient.

“Of the 80 members of the Giri Makmur farmers’ cooperative, everyone has been using bioethanol for free,” says Didik Prasetyanto, a co-founder of the effort, as he points to two drums used to distill a batch of fermented maize.

“We use maize to produce ethanol because there are more corn farmers [in the village] than sugarcane farmers,” Didik says. “In the beginning, we [experimented] using cassavas and sugarcane.”

The farmers once struggled to buy fuel for their motorcycles and to light their stoves because their village was so remote. Middlemen would inflate the price of gasoline and kerosene to far above their retail prices, Didik explains.

When the group realized they had been growing the ingredients for biofuel literally in their back yards, they gathered together Rp 20 million ($1,620) to use as startup capital and were soon building their makeshift distillery, experimenting with various techniques and enzymes needed to produce their own fuel.

Didik and the others meticulously recorded their findings, at times consulting on their production techniques and products with local universities.

Didik explains that the corn is first slurried with water and a teaspoon of a dark-colored enzyme, the contents of which the villagers closely guard as they are still in the process of patenting their technique.

It takes six hours for the secret enzyme to dissolve the corn, Didik explains.

The brew is fermented for seven days, after which it is cooked for six hours at a temperature of 87 degrees Celsius, producing a colorless and odorless ethanol vapor that is then placed into water bottles.

The farmers can produce up to 20 liters of ethanol at a time from about 40 kilograms of corn, with 92 percent purity.

“The [product] can be used as a substitute for LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] as fuel for a stove,” Didik says. “Just a quarter of a liter can be used for about four hours of cooking, non-stop.”

The group has spent the past 18 months experimenting with methods to produce a concoction that is 99 percent ethanol, which, with some adjustments to a vehicle’s engine, can be used as a direct substitute for gasoline.

This technical-grade ethanol is produced by distilling the corn brew twice in a gas-powered furnace.

Didik says the output would be equivalent to high-octane gasoline.

“The production costs can reach up to Rp 30,000 [per liter]. With 40 kilograms of corn and the special enzyme we can only produce up to 14 liters [of technical-grade ethanol],” he says.

The high production cost and low output, which makes the concoction twice the price of its high-octane gasoline equivalent, makes the fuel available only to the group’s members. However, the waste product can still be worth a lot of money, Didik says.

“The dissolved corn [...] is dried so the acidity [level] is reduced. [The corn waste] is high in protein and is good for chicken feed,” he says.

Meanwhile, the liquid waste is mixed with other organic ingredients and sold as mulch. Like the fuel, these products are available for the villagers only, while the profit goes toward more research.

“We dream of increasing our production and selling it to the public,” Didik says, adding that they need to first get their technique patented and find a way to reduce production costs.

The Malang district agriculture agency has begun to monitor the farmers’ success in producing their own biofuel and hopes to introduce the program to neighboring villages.

“We have [proposed] a budget to map out the agricultural potential [of the bioethanol program] in the district of Malang for 2015,” agency chief Tomi Herawanto says. “We need to determine the most ideal type of crop so the process can be sustainable without disrupting the food supply.”

Sumbermanjing Wetan village’s success has attracted Hariyono from Krajan Lor village, located on the southern coast of Malang, to learn more about the promising technique.

Hariyono says he has been successful at setting up his own distillery which at the moment can only produce the 92 percent ethanol for cooking.

“I want the farmers [in Krajan Lor] to be able to make their own fuel. This way we won’t have to complain about the fuel prices going up,” he says.

World Bank and aid donors accused of enabling land grabs

Millions of smallholder farmers worldwide have been left homeless and hungry because of private investment promoted by policies such as tax breaks and cheap loans, says report

theguardian.com, Ellie Violet Bramley, Wednesday 21 May 2014

An Ivorian man harvests fruits from the Jatropha, which is used as a diesel
 substitute. The demand for biofuels is exacerbating land grabs, says ActionAid.
Photograph: AFP

Aid donors and international institutions including the World Bank and World Economic Forum (WEF) have been accused of promoting an environment that fuels land grabs through policies and initiatives that pave the way for large-scale private investment.

In a report published on Tuesday, the NGO ActionAid says public money and policy incentives such as tax breaks and cut-price loans are facilitating land deals that threaten the lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in poor countries.

ActionAid warns that the consequences of such deals, which are too often happening behind closed doors and with little or no consultation with local communities, include "forced evictions, human rights violations, lost livelihoods, divided communities … rising food insecurity and, ultimately, increased poverty".

A spokesman for the World Bank said it was also concerned about the risks of large-scale land deals and stressed that it did not support investments that took advantage of weak institutions in developing countries.

ActionAid's report says weak governance and regulation of land use and agricultural investments have left millions of smallholder farmers and indigenous people in vulnerable situations "lack[ing] recognition over their land rights, even if they have resided in or used the area for generations".

ActionAid's campaign manager, Antoine Bouhey, said a "nexus of different policies" at the global level, which encourage private investment as a route to development, were also to blame.

"Governments are turning to private capital to fill the massive shortfall in public spending but too often this blind rush for investment is leading to land grabs which are leaving communities landless, homeless and hungry. Growth cannot be achieved at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable," he said.

The NGO's report points to the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition as one of the international initiatives "via which taxpayer money and public policies are fuelling land grabs" and failing to ensure strong safeguards to protect the poorest.

The New Alliance was condemned as a new form of colonialism this year, after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to encourage private investment.

Last month, World Development Movement, the anti-poverty group, said the New Alliance was in effect carving up Africa in the interests of big business.

ActionAid's report also looks at how governments of developing countries are facilitating large-scale land deals through direct intervention in sales and lease agreements, and by introducing public policy incentives such as tax holidays for agribusiness investors.

It says such deals, often justified on the basis of attracting increased investment into food and farming, have come at great human cost.

Public and private investment should be redirected towards supporting sustainable agricultural practices suited to the needs of smallholder farmers, particularly women, says ActionAid. A "zero-tolerance approach" must be taken by governments over land grabs and the incentives that fuel them.

Most of the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 a day reside in rural areas and depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people are involved in small-scale agriculture.

A World Bank spokesman said the organisation provided roughly a third of all aid to support countries in improving governance of land tenure. "Securing access to land is critical for millions of poor people. Modern, efficient, and transparent policies on land rights are vital to reducing poverty and promoting growth, agriculture production, better nutrition, and sustainable development," he said. "Our role is to be a leader in assisting countries to improve land governance and the behaviour of private investors."

Lisa Dreier, a senior director working on food security and development at the WEF, said its New Vision for Agriculture helped found the Grow Africa initiative, which created 33,000 jobs and gave 2.6 million small farmers in Africa access to technology, financing and new markets.

"Smallholder farmers are key to the future success of Africa's agriculture and governments can support them by implementing clear rules on land ownership that protect smallholder rights and encourage investment," she added.

What is a land grab?

"Many land deals are, in fact, land grabs carried out without proper consultation, consent and compensation," says ActionAid.

The NGO uses a definition of land grabs that draws on the Tirana declaration, agreed at a 2011 international conference. The declaration defines land grabs as deals that are "in violation of human rights, particularly the equal rights of women, not based on principles of free, prior and informed consent, or are in disregard or fail to thoroughly assess social, economic and environmental impacts, not based on transparent contracts … " or are not based on "effective democratic planning, independent oversight and meaningful participation".

Conclusive, independent data on the scale of land grabs worldwide is hard to come by. ActionAid's report looks at data from the international Land Matrix project, which suggests that the vast majority of large-scale deals have been struck in sub-Saharan Africa (41%), south-east Asia (32%), and the Americas and Caribbean (19%).

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