Copenhagen Cop-Out

The targets from January's Copenhagen climate change conference have been and gone, and largely ignored. The UN's climate change representative has just resigned. So why all the talk and yet nothing has been done? One strong point is that no one is even sure if the planet is actually warming dangerously. The scientists can't agree, and has been shown recently thanks to several leaked emails, they are even "bending" the truth to make the situation appear worse than it actually is.

The UK government has tried to instill an eco policy despite the recession, possibly using it as an excuse to raise money from taxes on fuel and cars, however for all the talk of expensive wind turbines and the use of expensive public transport, would it really make a difference? One estimate reveals that the worlds 1.3 billion cows produce nearly 100 million tons of methane each year, almost a third of all methane pollution. So one useful idea would be to get rid of all the worlds cows, become vegetarians, and thereby cutting methane pollution- obvious right? Hmmmm.

Brazil however is a good example of how to cut pollution by using bioethanol. Bioethanol has a number of advantages over conventional fuels. It comes from a renewable resource i.e. crops, usually in the form of sugar cane and not from a finite resource and the crops it derives from grow well around the equator. Another benefit over fossil fuels is the greenhouse gas emissions. The road transport network accounts for 22% of all greenhouse gas emissions and through the use of bioethanol, some of these emissions will be reduced as the fuel crops absorb the CO2 they emit through growing. avoiding heavy reliance on oil producing nations. And as the crops grow well in areas such as South America and Central Africa, this would enable the poorer countries in those areas to benefit.

One criticism is that Brazilians should worry about the lack of food in Africa instead. This is a very important issue, of course, but its relationship with bioenergy probably will have more benefits than damage. The food problem in Africa is very complex and has connections with politics, economy and agricultural technology, to name but a few. Looking at it from the viewpoint of bioenergy versus food, there is simply not enough of a bioenergy market in the planet, at least up to 2015-2020, that could support the production of bioenergy crops in Africa so that it could influence food production there. Even if it does, and profits are high, Africans could benefit a lot from that and then invest their profit to improve their food technology, therefore increasing food production and quality.

In the case of Brazil, the current production of bioethanol does not compromise food production at all, and are using less than 1% of the agriculturally usable land area in the whole country.

So why no mass production of bioethanol? Or for that matter a worldwide investment in electrically powered vehicles? OIL! without worldwide demand for oil, the economies of countries that produce it would collapse - in other words the USA and most of the Middle East. The already volatile Middle East would be in turmoil, and the USA, the largest consumer of fuel would be considerably worse off. So until the oil runs out, don't bother worrying about your Carbon Footprint.