Secret Report Biofuel
Caused Food Crisis
Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
Aditya Chakrabortty
The Guardian,
Friday July 4, 2008
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75%
- far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank
report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished
assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried
out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically
contradicts the
Senior development sources
believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid
embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank
in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
The news comes at a critical
point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy.
Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next
week in
It will also put pressure on the
British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously
reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a
"significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels.
Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.
"Political leaders seem
intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels
are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy
adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While
politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor
countries cannot afford enough to eat."
Rising food prices have pushed
100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and
have sparked riots from
President Bush has linked higher
food prices to higher demand from
Even successive droughts in
Since April, all petrol and
diesel in
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have
declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been
moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the
study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that
higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an
increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been
responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways.
First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of
Other reviews of the food crisis
looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors,
and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels.
But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has
done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which
allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels
and food supply.
The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which
Supporters of biofuels
argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil
fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it
does not apply to
"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr
David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night.
"All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising
higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."