Oxfam:inadequate response to crisi
Development NGO Oxfam has called on the G8 to set out a concrete action plan to tackle the food crisis and has asked the UK to rethink its biofuel madate.
di Staff
The rich world’s response to the global food crisis has been inadequate and at times hypocritical, said Oxfam today on the eve of the G8 summit and ahead of a critical vote in Europe on biofuels.
New research suggesting that the rush for biofuels has pushed food prices up by 75%, adds to already strong evidence that biofuels are doing more harm than good. Also due today is the delayed Gallagher enquiry into the impact of biofuels. Oxfam is urging the UK government to scrap its target for biofuels and MEPs to reject the proposed EU target of 10% of energy from biofuels by 2020.
The experts say…
According to Phil Bloomer, director of Oxfam’s campaigns and policy: “Rich world politicians are failing to acknowledge the impact of their own unfair policies. There is so much evidence about the negative impacts of biofuels that setting mandatory targets seems unconscionable. And yet that’s what the UK has done, thereby sending a signal to the markets and the private sector that demand is here to stay, and keeping prices high. The EU must not follow suit.”
The World Bank estimates that increases in prices of wheat, rice and maize cost developing countries $324bn last year alone – the equivalent of three years global aid spending. Food inflation has wiped out 10% of the GDP of Senegal, Haiti and Sierra Leone, and around 5% of GDP in Vanuatu, Mozambique and Eritrea, according to latest World Bank analysis.
Crisis shatters lives
“Food inflation might cause pain in rich countries – but it is shattering entire economies and people’s lives in developing countries,” said Bloomer. “At the G8 this week world leaders need to do much more to show they are ready to tackle this food crisis in the long term. They must reiterate their promises to increase aid – needed now more than ever – and make the necessary reforms including increasing investment in agriculture in poor countries, targeting women and small farmers.”
Also, the European Commission are proposing to offer 1 billion dollars of unspent agriculture funds to help farmers from poorest countries boost their food production. Oxfam welcomed the urgently needed money, but said the Commission needed to go further and seize the opportunity to reform.
“Rich countries’ farm subsidies have systematically undermined production in poor countries. While prices are high they should take the chance to end the unfair subsidies once and for all. Aid should not distract from the urgent need for fundamental root and branch reform in the EU and US,” said Bloomer.
Oxfam’s challenge
The World Trade Organization is due to meet later this month but Oxfam challenged the assertion that the proposed global free trade deal would alleviate the situation and said that rapid liberalisation, without sufficient flexibility for poor countries, would further expose developing countries to shocks.
“While we do not want to see a retreat into protectionism, the current situation should not be an excuse to rush through liberalisation either. The latest proposals at the WTO fall far short of what is needed and represent a step backwards in terms of development. Any agreement based on what is currently on the table will not help solve the food crisis or reduce poverty,” said Bloomer.
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