MONTREAL – An upcoming international climate change conference could provide the embattled biofuel industry with a much-needed shot in the arm.
The Canadian Renewable Fuels Association doesn’t believe leaders from the 190 nations scheduled to attend the December meeting in Copenhagen will be able to agree on a treaty.
But the group is hoping for a strong political commitment to move the climate change agenda forward.
“That’s going to be an important signal for us,” said CRFA president Gordon Quaiattini.
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The United Nations Climate Change Conference, which begins Dec. 7, is the forum where world leaders will attempt to agree on a new climate pact to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol.
Quaiattini said biofuel is the most readily available alternative for reducing greenhouse gases. If governments show willingness in Copenhagen to tackle the problem with renewed vigour, it should spur further investment in the sector.
“That creates market certainty and investment opportunity for our industry,” he said.
Ken Field, chair of Greenfield Ethanol, a member of the CRFA, said the biofuel industry is still under attack from naysayers, including those who believe climate change is a farce.
He said the media is littered with misleading reports about the industry. Field is determined to set the record straight.
“What we’re doing is good and what we’re doing is right and we’re not starving children in Africa,” he told delegates attending the Biofuels International Canada Expo & Conference.
Field said gasoline should be the target of public ire. It is full of pollutants that are the main ingredient in smog, a respiratory irritant.
“When I went to school there were no children with a puffer. I never knew anyone who had asthma,” he said.
Field called gasoline “a poison,” noting that 20 years ago, oil companies boosted octane levels in their fuel by adding lead.
Ten years ago, they switched to benzene and other known carcinogens.
He said that gasoline is a major contributor to Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet ethanol, which in its pure form is straight vodka, has become the whipping boy of the media.
Field said the renewable fuel reduces every tailpipe emission, boosts octane without the harmful effects of carcinogens and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent, according to the International Energy Agency. Those emission reductions are expected to grow to 55 percent by 2015.
Food versus fuel
Field said stories that ethanol is taking food from the mouths of the poor is bunk. Corn used for ethanol production is industrial corn, not food corn.
Besides, much of the edible corn that goes into the food stream is turned into artificial sweeteners that are contributing to North America’s obesity and diabetes epidemic, he added.
The United States Department of Agriculture forecasts a 1.5 billion bushel corn surplus this year after all export obligations have been met.
“What would you do with all that corn if you didn’t make ethanol?” said Field.
