16 Dec 2009

CLIMATE CHANGE / BIOFUELS

UNEP says that although substituting petrol with biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent, not all biofuel production has a positive impact on emissions. UNEP / UNTV / FILE

Posted at: December 16, 2009 4:29 pm

Duration: 02:11

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: CLIMATE CHANGE / BIOFUELS 
TRT: 2:11
SOURCE: UNEP / UNIDO / UNTV / MINUSTAH / WORLD BANK / VATTENFALL HANDOUT
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / NATS

DATELINE: RECENT / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – UNTV – JULY 2007, SAO PAULO STATE, BRAZIL

1. Aerial shot, truck driving through cane fields
2. Close up, sugar cane
3. Various shots, sugar cane harvest

FILE – UNTV – 17-29 NOVEMBER 2008, PUCALLPA, PERU

4. Various shots, man gathering palm fruits
5. Various shots, palm oil processing plant

UNEP – 2 NOVEMBER 2009, NAIROBI, KENYA

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
"Biofuels like any new technology, in inverted commas, always suffers the risk that as one looks at its potential one overestimates its ultimate contribution to solving a problem."

FILE – UNTV – JULY 2007, FLONA TAPAJOS, AMAZON REGION, BRAZIL

7. Various shots, trees being cut down

FILE – UNEP – MARCH 2009, MAU FOREST, KENYA

8. Various shots, aerials of Mau Forest complex
9. Various shots, animals

FILE – UNTV –MAY 2008, TULAPA, PUEBLA STATE, MIXTECA REGION, MEXICO

10. Med shot, corn fields 
11. Wide shot, land being ploughed
12. Med shot, truckload of corn

UNIDO – 9 OCTOBER 2009, LEON, MEXICO

13. SOUNDBITE (English) George Assaf, Spokesperson, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO):
"UNIDO is very supportive of any effort by various countries themselves to create jobs to create incomes and to revive particularly employment in rural areas. And if biofuels can do that without challenging food security and without harming the environment, then we are supportive of that."

UNIDO – 9 OCTOBER 2009, LEON, MEXICO

14. Wide shot, entrance to Energy Conference in Mexico
15. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Juan Herrera, Biocom:
"Our object is to use unused land, land that was never used, nor ever will be used for food for various reasons, be they climatic, agronomic, and including economic. We are not interested in competing with land for food."
16. Med shot, plants and seeds on display
17. Various shots, three test tubes with seeds
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sergio Ramirez, BioFields:
"Producing energy from algae has all the advantages and none of the disadvantages that occur in existing technologies."

FILE – VATTENFALL HANDOUT – DATE UNKNOWN, UPPSALA, SWEDEN

19. Wide shot, truck driving up road to biofuel plant
20. Various shots, garbage truck with recycle sign reversing towards side of building and emptying waste 
21. Various shots, grab claw grabbing and releasing a load of waste
22. Various shots, man looking through hatch on furnace door, orange flames visible inside

STORYLINE:

A recent UN report said that substituting petrol with biofuels such as ethanol from sugar cane can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 per cent.

The report, produced by the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management to assess the climate impact of biofuels, also found that not all biofuel production has a positive impact on emissions.

Achim Steiner, head of UNEP, said that risks associated with the production are often overlooked and its ultimate contribution to solving the greenhouse problem is overestimated.

SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
"Biofuels like any new technology, in inverted commas, always suffers the risk that as one looks at its potential one overestimates its ultimate contribution to solving a problem."

Clearing tropical forests for biodiesel crops, for instance, leads to far greater carbon emissions than those saved by substituting biofuel for fossil fuel in cars.

Aside from deforestation and loss of habitat for animals, critics have long feared that energy crops are threatening food security especially when agricultural land is increasingly used for biofuel crop production.

Just last year, UNEP estimated that worldwide land use for biofuel crops was about two percent of global cropland.

The UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which recently co-hosted a conference on renewable energy in Mexico, believes that biofuel production creates jobs in rural areas. George Assaf, UNIDO's Spokesperson, added the organization supports the production as long it does not challenge food security and harm the environment.

SOUNDBITE (English) George Assaf, Spokesperson, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO):
"UNIDO is very supportive of any effort by various countries themselves to create jobs to create incomes and to revive particularly employment in rural areas. And if biofuels can do that without challenging food security and without harming the environment, then we are supportive of that."

Biofuel companies like Biocom do not see themselves competing with food production. Juan Herrera at Biocom added that the objective is to use degraded or abandoned land.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Juan Herrera, Biocom:
"Our object is to use unused land, land that was never used, nor ever will be used for food for various reasons, be they climatic, agronomic, and including economic.  We are not interested in competing with land for food."

Another way to avoid land use conflicts is to develop advanced biofuels from algae, wood or waste. BioFields, another biofuel company, believes producing energy from algae, for instance, has none of the disadvantages that occur in existing technologies.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Sergio Ramirez, BioFields:
"Producing energy from algae has all the advantages and none of the disadvantages that occur in existing technologies."

Today, biofuels provide 1.8 percent of the world's transport fuel and are mainly produced in the United States, Brazil and the European Union.