World Food Crisis Summit

Summit dodges biofuels decision

Article published on the 2008-06-06 Latest update 2008-06-06 14:16 TU

A malnourished baby receives treatment in Ethiopia, which says 4.5 million of its people need emergency food aid
(Photo: Reuters)

The final declaration at the World Food Crisis Summit in Rome fell short of expected results as it ended on Thursday, most notably on the topic of biofuels. Even before the final agreement the statement attracted criticism from some quarters, dampening the success of 4.1 billion euros pledged at the three-day conference.

The "disappointing" text was "unfortunately very watered down with respect to the initial ambitions," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at the end of negotiations.

After last-minute wrangling, the text declared that biofuels, a heavily-promoted initiative in the United States and Brazil, present both "challenges and opportunities" and called for more research, effectively side-stepping the argument.

Critics of biofuels see them as using land to grow crops for this alternative energy source, instead of providing food.

"As the world's most powerful countries, they must provide more money to deal with the immediate impact of the the current crisis but also tackle some of the contributing causes by ending compulsory biofuels targets and providing more long term aid for agriculture," said  Barbara Stocking, the head of UK charity Oxfam.

The summit aimed to deal with the current food crisis by examining climate change and bioenergy. Prices have doubled around the world over the past three years, according to  the World Bank, sparking food riots in dozens of countries.

The Italian Foreign Minister also complained of the real lack of solidarity at the summit.

"There were grand statements, assertions of principle, but I didn't hear the sort of unanimous cohesion that would have been necessary," he said.