Growing world energy demand, the insecurity of long-term supply and the consequences of fossil fuel use for climate change are driving governments to look for alternatives. To meet rising energy needs, many countries are promoting the production and use of biofuels – energy extracted as a gas, liquid or oil from plants.

Derived from food crops such as corn, sugarcane, soybean, oil palm and sugarbeet, biofuel production has been on the rise in recent years. It is seen by many as a clean form of energy in an era of soaring oil prices and concerns over carbon emissions.

Jatropha, a plant originating in Central America that grows wild in many developing countries, including South Africa, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and the Philippines, has suddenly found itself at the centre of a new phase in the world’s alternative energy boom.

In the Philippines, there is currently much hype surrounding its production as a source of renewable fuel. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed into law the Biofuels Act which mandates a minimum one per cent biodiesel blend and five per cent bioethanol blend in all diesel and gasoline fuels. To meet demand, the government is aggressively pushing for the cultivation of jatropha, believing it to be one of the best candidates for future biofuel production.

The government, through the Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp, is now looking at some 1.2 million hectares for jatropha production in the southern island of Mindanao. It is also busy identifying more than 400,000 hectares of land for private sector investments.

Jatropha curcas is a drought-tolerant non-edible shrub. It produces fruits the size of golf balls which contain oil that can be converted into biodiesel, a substitute for fossil fuel.

According to Rhandy Tubal, research specialist at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Cordillera, farmers who have received training to grow jatropha are enthusiastic about the crop. He says the cultivation of the plant could provide the first step out of poverty for Filipino farmers and claims that, depending on the density of the plants, each hectare can yield jatropha oil worth nearly US$2,000 a year.

“We are in the initial stage of planting jatropha and we are very optimistic that it is indeed one of the best candidates for biofuel. Farmers are very excited about its production,” Tubal says, adding that only idle land would be used for jatropha planting to avoid competition with other crops.

However, research from Australia suggests the plant will need more intensive inputs to produce the oil used for biofuels and it can take several years to develop optimum yields. Furthermore, some experts warn the move may use up precious land that could be used to grow food and may eventually hurt subsistence farmers. Concerns over possible future food shortages have generated a ‘food versus fuel’ debate in the country.

Rachel Smolker, a biofuels specialist and research biologist for the US-based environmental group the Global Justice Ecology Project, fears the global rush to switch from oil to energy derived from plants will drive deforestation, push small farmers off the land and lead to serious food shortages and increased poverty unless carefully managed.

“If food sources become biofuels, that may lead to shortages and raise prices. The promotion of biofuels will have an impact on local food security as some fuel crops are also food crops,” Smolker says.

Her view is echoed by Philippine Senator Miriam Santiago, author of the 2007 Biofuels Act, who has sought more governmental oversight of biofuels development, saying that backing biofuels could adversely affect the country’s ability to produce its own food.

“Biofuel is land-based and will eventually compete with food. Because the Philippines has a small land area, biofuel production will tend to encroach on food production. Corporations are already searching for millions of hectares for jatropha alone. We have to step on the brakes and decelerate,” she says.

Santiago thinks the Philippines “will not prosper by betting only on the biofuels option”. She says the government should explore other alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass.

But the Philippines’ Environment Secretary Lito Atienza has defended the government’s massive jatropha cultivation for the biofuels programme, saying it will not imperil the country’s food supply.

“Jatropha is a non-food crop. So the issue over food versus fuel is not a debate about this crop. Jatropha grows on idle lands, particularly denuded mountains and forests, unfit for food crop cultivation, so it will not compete with land used for the production of food,” Atienza says.

Widespread jatropha cultivation is fairly new in the Philippines. It is only recently, with the news that jatropha can be a source of biodiesel, that people have started planting larger areas of the crop.

All the more reason, according to Dr Emil Javier, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology, to check out its credentials. “The Philippines should do its homework and conduct thorough research on jatropha and see its viability compared with other alternative crops,” he says.

The challenge, believes Achim Dobermann, a scientist from the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute, is to ensure a balance between food and biofuel production. “There is an urgent need to strengthen policy research in order to avoid decisions that may lead to competition between food and bioenergy.”

After two weeks of negotiations at the UN Framework on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) last week (14 December), 187 countries agreed to the strategy for future climate talks. These will culminate with a final agreed protocol at the UNFCCC to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

“We now have a roadmap, we have an agenda and we have a deadline. But we also have a huge task ahead of us and time to reach agreement is extremely short, so we need to move quickly,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, at the conference.

The roadmap outlines key issues to be negotiated.

Nations agreed that action is necessary to adapt to the negative consequences of climate change, such as droughts and floods.

A sticking point was whether or not the roadmap should call for developed nations to cut carbon emissions to 25–40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The United States had opposed the mention of such a target, on the grounds that they did not want the roadmap to predetermine the outcome of the negotiations on a post-Kyoto framework — a position shared by other countries such as Canada and Japan.

However, they compromised after specific figures were dropped from the final text — it now says developed countries should reduce emissions by at least half by 2050.

“The roadmap that has been agreed is a step toward an agreement that can address climate change risks to our planet,” UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon told SciDev.Net.

All nations should begin to address key challenges particularly on adaptation measures, transfer of technology and combating deforestation, Ban said.

Approval for the UN Adaptation Fund was a key part of the agreement.

Governments also agreed to kick-start a strategic programme to scale up investment for the transfer of both adaptation and mitigation technologies to developing countries.

The programme aims to create a better environment for investment in the sector, such as providing incentives to the private sector for technology transfer. The Global Environment Facility will look to establish this programme with help from the private sector.

The mandate of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer will be extended for a further five years. The Group was asked to pay particular attention to the assessment of gaps and barriers to the use and access of financial resources.

They will also begin working on performance indicators that can be used to regularly monitor and evaluate progress on the development, deployment and transfer of environmentally sound technologies.

Elsewhere in the roadmap parties agreed to develop a work programme to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The programme will look into assessments of changes in forest cover and associated greenhouse gas emissions, and methods to estimate, and demonstrate, reductions of emissions from deforestation.

The size limit for small-scale reforestation projects will be doubled to 16 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide per year, to enable more projects to qualify for the UN clean development mechanism (CDM) and allow many more countries to take part.

The possible inclusion of carbon capture and storage as a CDM activity was also discussed for the first time. Parties agreed to formulate a workplan for this — to be taken further in 2008.

They also agreed to extend the mandate of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group, which provides critical advice on the adaptation needs of developing countries.

“We want to let everybody know that even the smallest child can participate in the global effort to combat climate change,” said Candelario, a third-year high-school student and a leader of the Paraiso Active Youth/Children’s Organization in Masbate.

Candelario and three other children from Sweden, the United Kingdom and Indonesia spoke to some delegates and journalists about the effects of climate change on children and the youth.

Through the support of Plan International, they shared their views on the impact of climate change in their lives and that of their peers and communities; as well as ideas on how the people can educate and inspire others to work together to address the challenges brought about by climate change.

“The unprecedented pace and intensity of climate change becomes more pronounced every year not only in the Philippines but in other poor countries,” said Candelario, the youngest of five children.

She is worried about the bleaching of coral reefs, melting of ice in Antarctica, the rising sea level in low-lying islands and the health of children caused by changing climate.

“We recognize that the current extent of climate change is human induced. And we no longer have the luxury of continued debate. The time for action is now,” said Candelario, whose father is a teacher and mother, a janitress.

“I want to tell [our] government to take decisive action now before it’s too late. I want to tell them that my future is at stake if climate change is not mitigated,” Candelario said.

“The window of opportunity for us to address climate change is here in Bali. But in this conference we see no resolution of the contentious issues such as commitment on emission target cuts,” Environment Secretary Jose Atienza, Philippines’s lead climate change negotiator, told BusinessMirror.

Though seeing no breakthrough in the Bali conference, Atienza said, however, that the Bali talks is setting the process for negotiations to create new commitments in 2009, after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

“It seems that we will not reach a consensus here. We realize, however that the public wants to see concrete results out of the conference.

That’s why our negotiators are pushing for concrete projects and commitments that can be realized during the 2008 to 2012 period,” he explained.

On the other hand, delegates have also been split over whether the Bali Roadmap should explicitly stipulate legally-binding targets for carbon emission cuts for developed countries in post-2012.

The US has opposed negotiations to establish binding targets, insisting on a roadmap that is open and flexible. Meanwhile, the EU has insisted that the binding target be negotiated and included the roadmap.

Chief US negotiator HarlanWatson said they reject the call of UN draft resolution for a 2020 target for deep cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations from guidelines for a new pact to slow global warming beyond 2012.

“We do support the Bali roadmap and the process here but we will not commit [to] any cuts yet,” Watson said, referring to a draft text suggesting that developed nations should aim to axe emissions of heat-trapping gases by between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

“This is a serious challenge for all nations. There is no exception whether highly industrialized countries or poor nations. We should equally be concerned because we only have one planet to save,” Atienza said.

Australia’s move in signing the Kyoto Protocol created a big impact on how nations view Kyoto. He hopes the US will also join the pact and lead all nations in addressing the irreversible impact of climate change.

“We urge the US to join and take a different tack and be open-minded in all of these issues; it is time for real united effort,” he said.

DENR Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio on the other hand, told BusinessMirror he sees the urgency of all nations to come up with a roadmap.

“It is very clear that everybody thinks that there is urgency in the action to address climate change,” Ignacio said. “Basically, international cooperation is necessary to address this problem [and] no one can be exempted. All nations, especially the rich countries, should be united in tackling the changing climate.”

Undersecretary Manuel Gerochi said the Philippine government and other developing nations support the IPCC report submitted by the world’s leading scientists, stressing that science tells us “time is running out.”

“We are one in calling other nations to act now and recognize the urgency of this issue. Delay means more destruction and the poor will suffer,” Gerochi said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon expressed outrage and strongly condemned Tuesday’s terrorist bombing where fatalities included 11 UN employees.

“Words cannot express my sense of shock, outrage and anger at the terrorist attack on the United Nation in Algiers,” said the UN chief, who is in Bali for the climate change conference.

Meanwhile, security in Bali was tightened even more on Tuesday right after the bombing in Algeria.

More police and military officers were deployed around the conference venue where more than 10,000 delegates from 180 countries are gathering for the Bali negotiations. Helicopters circled the venue; sniff dogs and bomb-detector trucks were also deployed.

The Algerian capital was struck Tuesday by two car-bomb attacks near the city’s United Nations offices.

The UN has a total of 40 staff in Algeria, including 19 international staff, 21 temporary hires and 115 local.

Ban called the attack a “cowardly strike against civilian officials serving humanity’s highest ideals under the UN banner” and that it was “base, indecent and unjustifiable by any standards.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono joined Ban in condemning the deadly attack.

Speaking before the delegates during the opening of the high-level talks of the conference, Rudd said: “We express our sympathy to the victims of the bombing.”

Yudhoyono also expressed his condolences for the horrible terrorist attack that claimed people’s lives.

“We pray for the innocent victims and our deepest sympathies go to the families they left behind,” he said.

“The security of UN staff is paramount. We will take every measure to ensure their safety, in Algeria and elsewhere, beginning with an immediate review of our security precautions and policies,” Ban said.

Ban said he has ordered a UN security review, adding that “the perpetrators of these crimes will not escape the strongest possible condemnation and ultimate punishment by the international community.”

With the opening of the climate-change summit on Monday, international environment watchdog Greenpeace unveiled a giant thermometer outside the venue of the UN climate conference here to warn the delegates of rising global temperatures.

“For years, governments have let us, their citizens, down by failing to get to grips with the problem of climate change. They have left us increasingly exposed to the biggest threat that civilization has ever faced,” said Stephanie Tunmore of Greenpeace International.

Tunmore said developed countries, responsible for over 80 percent of all the man-made emissions currently in the atmosphere, must find ways to help the developing world deal with the impacts of climate change and to obtain renewable-energy technologies.

“While the major responsibility rests on the industrialized countries to cut back on their greenhouse-gas emissions now, it is equally important that developing countries like the Philippines avoid the mistakes made by the west,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia climate and energy campaigner Jasper Inventor.

Inventor stressed that the industrialized world must help wean developing countries away from fossil fuels and ensure the availability of financial and technological assistance, especially in the areas of renewable-energy development and energy efficiency.

Greenpeace believes it is possible to keep the worst impacts of climate change—such as extreme weather events, water crises and increased hunger—from putting millions of people at risk.

This will take a revolution in the way we use and produce energy, and a strong commitment to stop deforestation worldwide, the group said.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) agrees. The WWF said rich countries should lead the way to implement ambitious climate goals by drastically reducing their emission gases by less than a percent every year in the next 13 years.

“Time is fast running out. We need to use the Kyoto system to expand global carbon markets and stimulate investments in clean technologies,” said Dr. Stephan Singer, head of the WWF’s European Climate Change Programme.

A WWF report released last week cited that annual rainfall in archipelagic nations like the Philippines has fallen by 2 percent to 3 percent, while average temperatures have risen by 33°F.

It warns that global sea levels are rising at about 2 millimeters per year and are projected to accelerate to a rate of about 5 millimeters annually over the next century.

Development-projects funder Oxfam International, on the other hand, said the Bali summit should mandate the search for new funds for adaptation, especially in vulnerable countries.

“Future commitments to cut emissions are a must, but additional financing for adaptation cannot wait until 2012. Here in Bali, dozens of delegates from poor countries will tell you that they need it now,” said Kate Raworth, senior researcher for Oxfam.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), another nongovernment organization dedicated to ending poverty and inequality, is calling for concrete actions and policy reforms to reduce the causes of climate change, as well as urgent measures to help poor countries begin to adapt and overcome its effects.

“Tackling climate change is a question of justice for poor people. Rich countries caused the buildup of greenhouse-gas emissions, and now poor countries are being made to pay for this problem. In Asia, people have fallen victim to relentless and severe flooding, and harsh droughts, devastating the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor Asians, and this is being replicated in other poor parts of the world,” said Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of the Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust and member of the GCAP-Bangladesh coalition.

Chowdhury said that there is a huge setback in terms of the efforts to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh, adding that urgent measures must be taken to reduce the risks for people in low-lying areas to mitigate the worsening poverty and hunger in their country.

GCAP said: “We are bringing our loud collective voice to Bali so we are not left on the sidelines of scientific discussions. Climate change is about real people’s lives and livelihoods, and what are needed are real actions to enable us to adapt to our rapidly changing environment.”